IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 


Ideas  For  Boys 

by 

WALTER  W.  ROSS 


105  South  LaSalle  St., 
Chicago,  Illinois 

Printed    and    bound   by    Tucker-Kenworthy    Co.,    Chicago. 


; 


Copyright  1915 

by 

Walter  W.  Ross. 

All  Rights  Reserved 

for  All  Countries 


CONTENTS 

Page 

Foreword i-xiv 

Boys 1 

Youth 7 

Health  and  Strength 12 

School  Days 21 

College  Days 26 

Gambling 29 

Intoxication 31 

Tobacco 33 

Immoral  Women 34 

Studies 37 

Athletics 39 

Public  Speaking 42 

College  Friends 46 

Working  Your  Way  Through  Col- 
lege      48 

College  Vacations 50 

After  College  What? 52 

Business 57 

Money 59 

Business  by  Individuals 60 

Business  by  Partnerships    ....  62 

334472 


Business  by  Corporations    ....  64 

Various  Occupations 71 

Value  of  Property  in  the  United 

States 73 

Our  Country  and  Government  ...  78 

What  Is  a  Constitution 90 

Legislative  Power — Congress    .    .  93 

The  Executive  Power — President  .  96 

Judiciary 100 

Other  Provisions 102 

State  Government 104 

Mexico 108 

Law  and  Politics 124 

Revenue  Laws 127 

Tariff 128 

Inter  State  Commerce  Law    ...  143 

Monopolies  .   . 148 

Statutes 150 

Political  Parties 152 

Church 155 

Time  . 162 

Marriage 167 

Family  of  Nations 172 

Bribery 188 

Life  and  Death 202 

A  Man  Among  Men 207 


FOREWORD. 

Correct  ideas  are  obtained  only  by 
thought  and  labor.  The  ideas  which  an 
immature  boy  develops  from  time  to  time 
are  the  result  chiefly  of  his  environment, 
associates  and  reading.  He  needs  help. 

An  idea  which  is  worth  while,  cannot  be 
implanted  in  a  boy's  mind  without  effort, 
he  must  read,  study  and  confer  with  older 
persons,  and  be  willing  to  act  on  their 
sound  and  thoughtful  advice. 

I  have  three  boys  who  are  now  about 
eleven,  thirteen  and  twenty-three  years  of 
age  respectively,  and  like  most  fathers  I 
have  wanted  to  help  them  obtain  correct 
ideas  on  as  many  subjects  as  possible.  My 
own  father  died  when  I  was  less  than  three 
years  old,  and  realizing  the  uncertainty  of 
life  I  have  written  down  some  thoughts 
for  their  guidance  in  the  event  I  might  not 
be  with  them  later  on,  but  of  course  I  hope 
to  be  with  them  for  many  a  day  and  to  dis- 
[v  ] 


FOREWORD 

cuss  with  them  personally,  not  only  the 
matters  herein  contained,  but  many  others 
as  the  occasions  arise.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  some  of  these  ideas  may  help 
some  other  boys  as  well  as  my  own,  and 
in  the  hope  that  that  may  be  true  this  lit- 
tle book  of  conferences  is  published. 

However  stale  the  old  truths  may  seem 
to  mature  persons,  they  are  new  and  fresh 
to  each  rising  generation.  Boys  retain 
throughout  their  lives  many  of  the  ideas 
taught  them  in  youth. 

As  I  look  back  over  my  younger  days  I 
feel  that  the  words  of  advice,  both  written 
and  verbal,  given  me  by  my  maternal 
grandfather  were  of  substantial  benefit  to 
me  and  as  many  of  the  old  truths  herein 
recorded  were  first  called  to  my  attention 
by  him,  a  few  personal  words  regarding 
him  may  be  interesting. 

He  was  born  in  Rhode  Island,  where  his 
ancestors  had  lived  since  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  In  his  youth  he 
studied  medicine,  and  soon  after  his  mar- 
riage moved  to  Southern  Illinois  in  1840 
and  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession 


FOREWORD 

on  the  frontier.  Not  long  after  he  had  set- 
tled there  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  was 
built  through  the  community  in  which  he 
lived,  and  coal  was  soon  discovered  and 
Grandfather  provided  the  funds  to  develop 
one  of  these  mines  which  was  among  the 
first  of  the  coal  mines  operated  in  Illinois. 
The  country  developed  rapidly,  additional 
railroads  were  built,  new  coal  mines  were 
opened,  business  thrived,  schools  and  col- 
leges were  founded,  and  within  a  few  brief 
years  the  frontier  had  changed  into  a  busy 
center  of  trade  and  commerce. 

The  active  life  which  he  led  in  the  de- 
velopment of  this  new  community,  and  in 
the  practice  of  his  profession,  developed 
him  into  an  unusually  strong  and  rugged 
character.  By  the  time  he  was  sixty  years 
old  he  had  acquired  a  competency  and 
soon  retired  from  active  practice.  He  lived 
to  the  ripe  old  age  of  eighty-two  years, 
and  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life  were 
spent  principally  with  his  books,  his  chil- 
dren and  his  grandchildren.  He  had  been 
a  student  throughout  his  long  life,  and 
was  learned  not  only  in  his  profession  and 
[  vii  ] 


FOREWORD 

in  business,  but  also  in  politics,  geology 
and  astronomy,  his  favorite  studies. 

He  was  a  very  kind  and  generous  man, 
and  the  intimacy  which  existed  between 
us  was  unusual.  During  the  vacations  of 
my  student  days  we  spent  many  hours  to- 
gether. Sometimes  we  would  drive  into 
the  country  taking  our  lunches  and  spend- 
ing the  day  in  the  woods,  which  in  those 
days  was  equivalent  to  the  companionship 
of  a  golf  game  nowadays.  At  other  times 
we  would  work  together  in  the  garden  or 
chop  wood,  for  he  was  fond  of  exercise  and 
believed  boys  should  learn  to  do  manual 
work.  Often  he  would  awaken  me  at  va- 
rious hours  of  the  night  to  point  out  con- 
stellations of  stars  in  the  heavens;  and  I 
recall  his  obtaining  specimens  of  geolog- 
ical formations,  and  explaining  them  to 
me.  He  was  interested  in  the  politics  of 
the  day,  and  we  read  books  upon  such 
questions  together. 

During  the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  life 
we  spent  some  portion  of  each  year  to- 
gether, and  when  we  were  separated  we 
were  constant  and  frequent  correspond- 
[  viii  ] 


FOREWORD 

ents  especially  during  the  years  I  was 
away  from  home  attending  college  at 
Princeton,  and  law  school  in  Chicago  and 
at  Harvard. 

His  letters  of  advice  to  me  were  ex- 
tremely interesting  (a  check  was  some- 
times enclosed  which  greatly  added  to  my 
youthful  appreciation),  and  I  have  often 
wished  that  I  had  preserved  these  letters 
for  the  benefit  of  my  boys.  His  letters 
dwelt  upon  questions  which  pertained  to 
the  mental,  moral,  physical  and  political 
development  of  a  boy. 

Crises  frequently  arise  in  the  life  of 
every  young  man,  especially  between  the 
ages  of  twenty  and  forty,  and  he  must 
solve  these  problems  for  himself,  no  one 
else  can  do  it  for  him.  It  was  my  expe- 
rience as  a  young  man  that  every  time  I 
met  such  a  situation,  there  came  to  my 
mind  some  advice  my  grandfather  had 
given  me,  perhaps  years  before,  which  ma- 
terially aided  me  in  solving  the  new  prob- 
lems of  life.  Men  change  and  conditions 
change,  but  principles  remain,  and  how- 
ever intricate  and  difficult  a  situation  may 


FOREWORD 

seem,  it  will  be  solved  with  the  aid  of  some 
well  founded  principle  of  justice. 

It  is  only  by  careful  and  thoughtful 
study  of  the  principles  of  right  living, 
gained  from  the  experience  of  others  as 
well  as  from  one's  own  experience,  that 
the  youth  can  obtain  a  knowledge  of  the 
principles  necessary  to  guide  him  in  his 
life's  work.  The  best  way  to  do  anything 
is  to  do  it  right,  but  of  course  it  requires 
intelligence,  experience  and  knowledge  to 
know  how  to  do  right.  Wrongs  are  gen- 
erally committed  through  ignorance,  and 
this  is  one  reason  why  knowledge  has 
such  a  great  advantage  over  ignorance. 

Tried  and  recognized  principles  are  the 
sign  posts  which  guide  the  youth  on  his 
way.  Every  person  ultimately  selects  and 
adopts  his  own  principles  of  living,  but  if 
he  makes  mistakes  in  his  selection  and  ac- 
tion he  must  pay  the  penalty  for  every 
wrong  he  commits. 

At  birth  Life  endows  a  normal  infant 
with  power  to  see,  hear,  feel,  taste,  smell, 
remember,  and  ultimately  to  reason  and 
talk.  Life  also  brings  to  the  infant  many 


FOREWORD 

instincts  which  are  developed  later,  such 
as  that  of  self  preservation,  love  and  the 
conception  of  a  Creator.  But  at  the  start 
of  its  career  the  infant  does  not  possess 
knowledge,  its  brain  must  be  developed, 
and  as  Life  proceeds,  physicians  tell  us, 
there  are  developed  in  the  brain  additional 
cells  through  the  exercise  of  the  brain  by 
thought  and  instruction,  just  as  the  mus- 
cles of  the  arm  or  other  parts  of  the  body 
are  developed  and  strengthened  by  exer- 
cise and  use.  Life,  however,  seems  to  be 
stronger  and  more  energetic  in  some  in- 
dividuals than  in  others,  but  the  extent  of 
your  strength  and  energy  can  only  be  de- 
termined by  a  test  of  many  years'  dura- 
tion. 

There  is  developed  in  every  normal  hu- 
man life  a  Character,  or  Personality,  or 
Will,  or  Mind,  or  Soul — I  care  not  what 
name  is  given  to  this  individual  power — 
which  governs  and  directs  the  develop- 
ment of  his  brain  cells.  This  power  is 
frequently  called  Will  power  and  is  ca- 
pable of  development,  it  is  spurred  on  by 
necessity,  by  interest  in  things  and  the  de- 


FOREWORD 

sire  to  be  able  to  do  and  possess  things. 

It  is  the  duty  of  intelligent  parents  or 
guardians  or  instructors  of  youth  to  see 
that  proper  instruction  is  given  to  the 
young  in  their  charge  in  order  that  their 
brain  cells  shall  be  properly  developed  as 
well  as  their  physical  and  muscular 
strength. 

Let  us  take  a  boy  ten  or  twelve  years 
old  who  having  heard  persons  play  the 
piano  decides  he  would  like  to  do  the  same 
thing.  When  he  first  sits  at  the  piano  he 
has  no  knowledge  of  music,  he  is  able  to 
strike  the  keys  and  make  a  noise,  but  not 
harmonious  music.  Someone  having  a 
knowledge  of  music  gives  him  instruction 
and  he  practices  day  after  day  on  the 
piano,  and  in  the  course  of  time  develops 
certain  cells  in  his  brain  which  enable  him 
to  read  music  and  perform  upon  the  in- 
strument. He  has  acquired  a  knowledge 
of  music  which  he  did  not  possess  before 
he  began  to  practice  and  study  the  art  of 
music. 

Again,  this  boy  decides  he  would  like  to 
know  how  to  operate  a  complicated  engine 
[  xii  ] 


FOREWORD 

or  machine,  some  one  who  has  knowledge 
of  engines  instructs  him  in  the  use  of  the 
different  parts  of  the  engine,  the  boy  prac- 
tices and  studies  and  soon  develops  suffi- 
cient brain  cells  to  intelligently  operate  the 
machine,  and  with  continued  study  he  may 
be  able  to  build  a  better  machine. 

To  illustrate  again,  a  boy  decides  he 
wants  to  acquire  the  ability  to  deliver  an 
oration,  he  must  first  study  language  and 
develop  brain  cells  so  that  he  may  use  lan- 
guage fluently,  and  then  he  must  study 
the  subject  on  which  he  is  to  speak  and  de- 
velop further  brain  cells. 

It  is  by  work  and  practice  and  effort  on 
the  part  of  a  growing  boy  that  his  brain 
cells  are  increased  and  developed  from 
time  to  time  and  his  knowledge  of  various 
subjects  is  built  up.  If  he  will  not  work 
his  knowledge  will  not  properly  increase. 

The  brain  in  a  boy  fifteen  years  of  age 
does  not  contain  the  knowledge  and  in- 
telligence by  far  that  it  will  contain,  if 
properly  directed,  when  he  has  attained 
the  age  of  forty  or  fifty  years.  The  boy 
should  therefore  never  think  that  he  has 
[  xiii  ] 


FOREWORD 

acquired  all  of  the  knowledge  in  the  world 
upon  a  subject,  but  he  should  be  glad  to 
receive  instruction  from  older  and  more 
experienced  and  learned  persons  than  him- 
self, and  especially  should  he  welcome  ad- 
vice from  his  parents  who  are  deeply  in- 
terested in  his  progress. 


BOYS. 

What  are  you? 

You  are  the  young  offspring  of  human 
parents,  possessed  of  a  body  which  con- 
tains the  vital  organs,  a  brain,  and  the 
spirit  of  life. 

Your  ancestors  have  passed  on  to  you 
many  characteristics  which  they  received 
from  their  ancestors  or  which  they  have 
acquired  by  their  own  actions.  You  are  a 
composite  of  hundreds  of  generations  who 
preceded  you.  If  your  parents  had  white 
skin,  your  skin  is  white;  if  theirs  was 
black,  yours  is  black;  if  theirs  was  yellow, 
yours  is  yellow.  Racial  features  and  com- 
plexions pass  from  one  generation  to  an- 
other, but  with  intermarriage  between 
different  races  these  distinctions  pass 
away. 

Your  parents  may  have  possessed  bril- 
liant intellects  and  fine  bodies,  and  you 
will  profit  thereby  if  you  put  forth  proper 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

effort;  or  your  parents  may  have  had  but 
moderate  brains  and  sickly  bodies,  but  it 
does  not  follow  that  you  are  doomed  to 
the  same  misfortune.  Your  development 
and  success  in  life  depends  almost  entirely 
upon  your  own  efforts;  you  must  develop 
from  within.  Abraham  Lincoln's  ances- 
tors were  persons  of  small  material 
achievements,  but  he  developed  the  pow- 
ers within  him  by  his  own  efforts,  and  this 
is  substantially  true  of  all  successful  per- 
sons. 

All  persons  cannot  achieve  great  re- 
nown, that  is  allotted  to  but  few,  much  de- 
pends upon  the  age  in  which  they  live  and 
the  circumstances  of  the  times;  but  all  men 
can  achieve  a  success  in  life  if  they  will 
develop  the  faculties  necessary  to  make 
themselves  useful  to  others. 

Usefulness  to  others,  is  really  the  best 
measure  of  success  in  life.  There  are 
about  a  billion  seven  hundred  million  per- 
sons living  on  this  earth,  you  can  be  useful 
to  some  of  these  persons,  and  many  of 
them  will  be  useful  to  you. 

The  chief  executive  of  a  great  nation, 
[  2  ] 


BOYS 

who  exercises  great  wisdom  in  the  per- 
formance of  his  many  duties,  is  useful  and 
helpful  to  millions  of  persons  daily.  The 
merchant  who  conducts  a  great  store,  the 
banker  who  controls  and  loans  large  sums 
of  money,  the  president  of  a  railroad  sys- 
tem carrying  thousands  of  passengers 
daily,  the  doctor,  lawyer  and  minister  do- 
ing things  helpful  to  others,  the  farmer 
raising  his  crops,  the  workman  and  laborer 
doing  their  duties,  are  each  successful  in 
their  respective  callings  in  proportion  to 
the  use  and  help  they  are  to  others. 

Boys  ten  years  old,  and  even  younger, 
can  begin  to  learn  how  to  become  useful 
to  others,  and  the  boys  who  learn  this  les- 
son early  in  life  and  continue  to  be  useful 
throughout  their  lives,  will  attain  the 
greatest  success  and  happiness  possible  for 
them. 

The  boy  who  learns  to  work  in  the  gar- 
den, thereby  helping  the  vegetables  to 
grow  and  make  food,  is  useful  to  others; 
the  boy  who  cleans  the  snow  from  the  side- 
walks or  distributes  papers,  or  who  serves 
as  a  caddie  or  studies  well  in  school,  or 
[  3  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

who  does  many  other  similar  things,  is  a 
useful  boy.  But  a  boy  who  lives  an  indif- 
ferent or  careless  life,  with  no  impulses  to 
help  others,  is  exposed  to  evil  and  becomes 
a  constant  care  and  source  of  anxiety  to 
those  who  watch  over  him.  Characteris- 
tics developed  in  boyhood  will  continue 
through  manhood  days.  "The  boy  is  father 
to  the  man."  Your  success  and  happiness 
increases  as  your  sphere  of  usefulness 
grows  larger. 

A  boy  can  easily  learn  to  do  some  small 
useful  thing,  but  he  must  be  trained  and 
taught  how  to  do  the  great  things  which 
are  useful  and  required  of  men  in  the  busy 
world. 

Boyhood  days  are  short,  manhood  soon 
arrives.  The  boy  of  today  is  the  man  of 
tomorrow.  The  president  of  the  United 
States  was  a  boy  a  few  short  years  ago; 
the  men  who  are  serving  as  judges  of  our 
courts,  and  the  men  who  are  conducting 
our  great  banking,  mercantile,  transpor- 
tation and  other  corporations  will  soon  be 
too  old  to  perform  these  great  services, 
and  the  boy  who  properly  equips  himself, 
[  4  ] 


BOYS 

will  soon  be  called  upon  to  take  the  place 
of  a  leader  who  has  passed  on,  or  to  per- 
form some  new  service  equally  important. 
But  bear  in  mind  that  the  competition  is 
fierce,  and  the  prize  will  go  to  the  best 
qualified. 

The  thoughtful  boy  asks,  what  must  I 
do  to  win  success  and  happiness  in  the  race 
of  life?  Whatever  you  do,  do  it  the  best 
way  you  know  how,  with  care  and  pa- 
tience, keep  on  learning  how  to  do  it  bet- 
ter, and  always  keep  a  contented  mind, 
and  be  cheerful. 

There  are  many  things  which  you  must 
learn  to  do,  and  also  which  you  must  not 
do.  Don't  believe  the  adage  of  the  old 
Scotchman  who  said  "First  get  on,  then 
get  honest,  then  get  honor,"  that  might 
get  you  money,  but  not  happiness  or  suc- 
cess in  its  true  sense,  it  might  land  you  in 
prison,  or  at  least  in  disgrace.  Keep  your 
conscience  clear,  and  do  nothing  that  will 
bring  upon  you  the  just  condemnation  of 
your  fellows.  Always  have  the  courage 
to  do  right  irrespective  of  immediate  re- 
sults, by  so  doing  you  will  win  in  the  end. 
[  5  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

A  boy  who  expects  to  go  through  col- 
lege ought  to  begin  in  earnest  to  prepare 
for  college  by  the  time  he  is  ten  years  old, 
and  by  the  time  he  is  eighteen  to  twenty 
years  old  ought  to  decide  what  profession 
or  kind  of  business  he  will  make  his  life 
work;  he  should  always  have  an  object 
ahead  and  work  toward  it.  Don't  drift 
along,  expecting  some  one  to  carry  you 
to  your  goal,  for  no  one  but  yourself  can 
make  you  a  success.  You  must  be  on  the 
alert  and  up  and  doing.  Don't  let  a  single 
day  pass  without  accomplishing  some- 
thing beneficial;  if  you  waste  your  time 
it  will  be  fatal  to  your  success. 


YOUTH. 

Youth  is  the  springtime  of  life  when 
things  are  wondrous  new,  when  nature 
and  life  are  being  unfolded  to  you.  It  is 
a  glorious  period  of  life,  if  you  will  then 
learn  as  well  as  you  can  to  understand 
the  laws  of  nature  which  govern  life,  and 
the  rules  of  right  conduct  among  men.  By 
the  attainment  of  such  knowledge,  you 
will  have  a  broader  and  more  liberal  view 
of  things  going  on  around  you  in  the 
world;  you  will  be  better  able  to  under- 
stand men  and  their  motives,  and  to  know 
the  cause  or  reason  for  many  things  and 
the  result  or  effect  of  doing  certain 
things. 

Whenever  you  play  any  game,  you 
must  first  learn  the  rules  and  play  it  ac- 
cording to  the  rules,  for  if  you  cheat  or 
fail  to  observe  the  rules  your  fellow  play- 
ers will  regard  you  as  a  poor  sportsman, 
and  may  even  refuse  to  play  with  you.  And 
[  7  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

so  it  is  in  playing  the  game  of  life — you 
must  first  learn  and  understand  the  right 
rules  of  conduct  among  men.  Every  man 
is  presumed  to  know  the  law,  and  it  is  nec- 
essary for  you  in  your  youth  to  learn  the 
laws  and  obey  them,  and  if  you  fail  to  do 
so,  you  must  pay  the  penalty  which  brings 
sorrow  and  disgrace.  "Ignorance  of  the 
law  excuseth  no  man." 

In  your  youth  learn  as  much  as  you  can 
about  all  things,  but  you  should,  during 
that  period,  learn  to  do  some  one  thing 
unusually  well;  learn  a  trade  or  a  partic- 
ular business,  or  a  profession,  and  become 
an  expert,  highly  efficient  in  that  one 
thing,  and  thus  become  useful  to  your  fel- 
low men,  and  therefore  successful  in  life. 

"Know  thyself "  —  learn  the  laws  of 
health  and  strength,  and  the  moral  and 
ethical  rules  of  life;  acquire  a  general 
knowledge  of  the  world  and  the  country 
in  which  you  live,  the  characteristics  of 
the  races  which  inhabit  the  earth,  the  prin- 
ciples of  business,  the  various  elements  of 
society,  and  endeavor  to  attain — the  most 
[  8  ] 


YOUTH 

difficult  and  most  desirable  of  all — a  con- 
tented and  cheerful  disposition. 

A  father  feels  that  his  boy  is  a  part  of 
himself,  and  to  an  extent  lives  his  life  over 
again  with  him,  and  there  is  nothing  he 
desires  more  than  to  have  his  boy  develop 
into  an  honorable  and  useful  man.  Aye, 
he  will  sacrifice  everything,  if  necessary, 
to  help  his  boy  along.  The  boy  in  turn 
must  honor,  love  and  obey  his  parent,  he 
must  remember  that  the  parent  is  much 
older  than  he  is,  that  he  has  had  many 
more  years  of  experience  and  study,  and 
knows  many  things  which  the  immature 
boy  cannot  know.  He  must  on  all  occa- 
sions show  his  parents  due  respect,  and  he 
will  gain  in  many  ways  if  he  remembers  to 
be  always  respectful  to  persons  older  than 
himself.  Every  boy  must  learn  to  obey 
promptly,  this  will  help  him  to  know  how 
to  command  later  on.  The  smart,  intel- 
ligent boy  does  learn  obedience;  the  dumb, 
bullheaded  boy  will  only  learn  by  his  own 
experience. 

Knowing  how  to  profit  by  the  experi-  ^/ 
ence  of  others  is  a  secret  of  progress. 
[  9  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

Just  as  a  boy  was  leaving  his  home  to 
spend  the  day  upon  an  excursion  boat,  his 
older  brother  warned  him  of  the  dangers 
of  an  overcrowded  boat  and  advised  him 
not  to  go  on  the  trip  if  he  found  the  boat 
crowded,  for  the  reason  that  if  there 
should  be  an  accident,  he  would  not  have 
much  chance  to  escape  with  his  life.  When 
the  boy  walked  on  the  gang  plank  of  the 
excursion  boat  he  saw  a  great  crowd  of 
men,  women  and  children  on  the  boat  and 
he  remembered  the  words  of  advice  his 
brother  had  given  him,  and  immediately 
left  the  boat.  A  few  moments  later  he  saw 
the  overloaded  vessel  list  and  topple  over 
carrying  hundreds  of  its  precious  passen- 
gers to  death.  His  own  life  was  saved  be- 
cause his  older  brother,  who  knew  more 
than  he  did,  gave  him  good  advice  which 
he  remembered  at  the  proper  time,  and 
acted  upon  promptly. 

The  cost  of  learning  many  things  by  ex- 
perience is  too  great,  frequently  death  is 
the  price. 

The  wise  man  acts  on  the  advice  of  his 
lawyer  on  a  question  of  law,  or  on  the  ad- 
[  10  ] 


YOUTH 

vice  of  his  physician  on  a  question  of 
health,  and  so  the  boy  should  act  on  the 
advice  of  his  parent  or  instructor.  He 
must  obey  promptly,  and  the  sooner  he 
learns  the  importance  of  obedience  the 
better  it  is  for  him,  for  if  he  trys  to  learn 
everything  by  his  own  experience  he  will 
not  know  very  much  when  his  short  career 
is  ended. 

History  relates  the  experience  of  in- 
dividuals, states  and  nations,  and  by 
studying  these  experiences  we  learn  what 
to  do  and  what  to  avoid. 


HEALTH  AND  STRENGTH. 

Every  one  admires  the  beauty  of  vigor- 
ous health  and  strength,  whether  pos- 
sessed by  man,  woman  or  child. 

If  you  would  possess  health  you  must 
study  and  learn  the  laws  of  nature  per- 
taining thereto,  and  then  follow  these 
laws.  Some  of  the  fundamental  require- 
ments are : 

plenty  of  sleep; 

one  day  of  rest  each  week; 

abundance  of  fresh  air ; 

nourishing  food  and  regular  meals; 

proper  exercise; 

regular  bowel  movements; 

daily  baths  and  care  of  the  teeth; 

cheerfulness  (don't  worry  over  what 
has  happened). 

A  boy  ten  years  old  ought  to  be  in  bed 

and  asleep  by  half  past  eight  o'clock  at 

night  and  sleep  until  half  past  six  in  the 

morning.     The  windows  should  be  open 

[  12  ]• 


HEALTH  AND  STRENGTH 

winter  and  summer.  When  a  boy  gets  to 
be  a  few  years  older  he  does  not  require 
so  much  sleep,  eight  or  nine  hours  will  be 
sufficient.  Even  if  you  should  be  kept  up 
late  at  night,  don't  oversleep  your  regular 
rising  hour  in  the  morning.  A  young  man 
can  hardly  acquire  a  habit  more  disastrous 
to  his  success  than  that  of  oversleeping  in 
the  morning.  Sleep  is  a  period  of  rest 
which  the  mind  and  body  absolutely  re- 
quire. A  few  minutes  of  sleep  during  the 
day  is  extremely  beneficial,  even  a  few 
minutes  spent  each  afternoon  lying  down 
is  helpful  to  the  heart  action,  and  if  reg- 
ularly taken  will  add  to  your  strength  and 
prolong  good  health  and  life. 

It  has  been  said  that  a  child  between  the 
ages  of  ten  and  twelve  years  attains  a 
greater  muscular  action  than  at  any  other 
time  in  life  and  in  order  to  properly  de- 
velop the  physique  an  abundance  of  fresh 
air  is  necessary.  A  boy  should  spend  much 
of  his  time  out  of  doors  in  the  fresh  air 
both  winter  and  summer.  If  a  person  is 
placed  in  a  small  air  tight  room  and  left 
there  for  some  time,  he  will  quickly  con- 
[  13  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

sume  that  part  of  the  air  which  sustains 
life,  and  die.  Wherever  you  are,  in  your 
room  at  home,  or  in  school,  see  that  there 
is  plenty  of  fresh  air  in  the  room,  but  don't 
sit  in  a  draught.  Impure  air  carries  in  it 
germs  of  disease.  Pure  air  invigorates 
the  lungs,  purifies  the  blood  and  helps  you 
to  keep  well;  therefore  get  out  of  doors  in 
the  sunshine.  Don't  sit  around  and  mope, 
but  be  active  and  cheerful. 

Your  body  is  your  human  machine,  and 
it  will  serve  you  in  proportion  as  you  treat 
and  care  for  it.  Study  and  learn  what 
foods  are  nourishing  and  beneficial  to  you, 
and  cut  out  the  things  which  are  harmful, 
for  if  you  take  sufficient  poison  into  your 
body,  you  will  destroy  it.  Your  digestive 
organs  may  be  able  to  eliminate  a  small 
amount  of  poisonous  narcotics  such  as  in- 
toxicants, coffee,  tea,  and  tobacco,  but  if 
used  sufficiently  these  poisons  will  per- 
meate the  system,  and  cause  sickness  and 
inefficiency.  These  things  are  especially 
harmful  to  the  growing  youth,  because 
they  prevent  the  proper  development  of 
the  body.  Develop  your  will  power  early 
[  14  ] 


HEALTH  AND  STRENGTH 

in  life  and  have  the  courage  to  say  no,  and 
refuse  to  take  into  your  system  the  things 
which  are  harmful. 

Eat  plenty  of  fruit  such  as  apples, 
oranges,  peaches,  pears,  grape  fruit  and 
other  wholesome  foods.  Moderate  your 
appetite,  don't  be  a  glutton,  don't  overeat. 
It  is  better  to  leave  the  table  a  little  hun- 
gry than  to  stuff  yourself  full  of  food  and 
drink.  Great  harm  follows  from  overeat- 
ing. The  system  does  not  require  a  large 
amount  of  food  to  keep  it  in  good  condi- 
tion. Eat  your  meals  regularly,  chew  your 
food  thoroughly,  take  plenty  of  time  for 
it,  then  your  stomach  will  have  less  work 
to  do.  Drink  plenty  of  pure  water  be- 
tween meals. 

You  want  your  body  to  be  an  efficient 
and  strong  machine  so  that  it  will  endure 
long  and  continuous  hours  of  work  when 
necessary,  hence  you  must  train  and  exer- 
cise the  muscles  and  organs  of  the  body. 
Take  a  reasonable  amount  of  exercise 
every  day.  Exercise  in  the  open  air  when 
you  can;  play  almost  any  kind  of  a  game 
out  of  doors,  it  rests  the  mind  and  exer- 
[  15  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

cises  the  body.  It  is  not  necessary  to  get 
all  of  your  exercise  in  playing ;  learn  to  do 
useful  things  out  of  doors,  if  you  are  in 
the  country  you  will  find  plenty  of  things 
to  do,  such  as  chopping  wood,  cutting  the 
grass,  or  working  in  the  garden  or  in  the 
field.  Learn  to  swim  when  young,  the  ex- 
ercise is  fine,  and  besides  knowing  how  to 
swim  may  sometime  save  your  life.  Dif- 
ferent games  will  interest  you  at  different 
periods  of  your  life.  Baseball,  football, 
swimming,  tennis,  golf,  skating,  are  all 
good  out  of  door  games,  and  hand  ball,  bil- 
liards and  pool  and  dancing  are  good  in- 
door exercises.  But  don't  do  these  things 
to  excess — do  them  in  moderation.  When 
you  are  short  of  time  you  can  get  excel- 
lent results  by  practicing  deep  breathing. 
Try  to  develop  your  muscles  so  that  they 
will  be  strong  and  supple  and  not  too 
heavy.  Keep  down  your  weight  in  a  nat- 
ural way.  Don't  overtrain  or  tax  the  mus- 
cles of  the  heart,  bad  results  follow  from 
this  in  after  life.  Overdevelopment  of  the 
physique  is  nearly  as  bad  as  under  develop- 
ment. You  must  use  judgment,  and  fol- 
[  16  ] 


HEALTH  AND  STRENGTH 

low  the  advice  of  those  who  understand 
how  to  train. 

Get  up  a  perspiration  every  day,  for 
many  of  the  poisons  of  the  body  are  elim- 
inated through  the  pores  of  the  skin.  In 
this  connection  I  don't  know  anything 
more  beneficial  to  health,  than  a  hot  and 
cold  shower  bath  taken  each  day.  The 
hot  water  opens  the  pores  of  the  skin  and 
cleanses  out  the  poisons,  the  cold  water 
taken  immediately  afterwards  stimulates 
the  heart  action,  closes  the  pores  of  the 
skin  and  prevents  colds.  Brush  your  teeth 
daily  and  have  the  dentist  keep  the  cav- 
ities filled. 

One  day  when  I  was  a  boy  I  asked  Dr. 
Wall,  what,  in  his  opinion  was  the  most 
necessary  thing  to  do  to  keep  in  good 
health.  He  replied,  "Keep  your  bowels 
properly  regulated — and  have  them  move 
every  day."  You  take  a  considerable 
quantity  of  food  into  your  stomach  each 
day,  and  after  the  organs  of  the  body  have 
taken  the  nutrition  out  of  the  food,  there  is 
a  large  part  of  it  which  must  be  eliminated 
from  the  body  through  the  bowels,  for  if 
[  17  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

the  waste  is  permitted  to  stay  in  the  body 
too  long  it  poisons  the  system  and  causes 
sickness.  It  may  be  necessary  for  you,  at 
times,  to  take  medicine  to  help  move  your 
bowels;  don't  be  afraid  to  take  a  couple 
of  tablespoonfuls  of  castor  oil  or  Russian 
oil  now  and  then,  they  are  as  helpful  to 
your  digestive  organs  as  lubricating  oil  is 
to  machinery.  As  long  as  you  take  food 
into  your  stomach  you  must  see  to  it  that 
the  refuse  passes  out;  there  is  never  a  day 
you  forget  to  eat,  remember  the  other  as 
well. 

When  you  are  sick,  act  on  the  advice  of 
your  doctor,  and  take  your  medicine.  For 
several  thousand  years  doctors  have  been 
studying  the  effect  of  different  medicines 
upon  the  human  machine  or  system  and 
have  accumulated  very  valuable  knowl- 
edge. Therefore  make  use  of  this  knowl- 
edge when  necessary. 

The  proper  development  of  a  strong 
body  while  young  is  very  important;  you 
can  develop  your  strength,  and  by  so  do- 
ing you  will  be  better  able  to  endure  the 
strains  and  struggles  which  are  sure  to 
[  18  ] 


HEALTH  AND  STRENGTH 

come  to  you  when  you  reach  manhood.  If 
you  become  a  business  man,  you  will  find 
that  frequently  important  business  mat- 
ters will  arise  which  will  require  all  of  your 
powers  of  endurance;  should  you  become 
a  lawyer  and  fight  in  the  courts  the  bat- 
tles of  others,  you  will  find  that  in  order 
to  successfully  cope  with  your  antagonists, 
you  must  have  a  strong  body  which  will 
endure  incessant  work  for  weeks  at  a  time. 
Bodily  strength  is  a  great  factor  in  suc- 
cess. 

We  are  all  creatures  of  habits  which 
are  easily  formed;  but  be  sure  you  form 
good  habits,  then  it  is  easier  to  do  right 
than  wrong. 

Every  boy  likes  to  hear  stories  of  his  an- 
cestors, and  it  is  an  advantage  to  him  to 
know  about  them;  study  their  characteris- 
tics, learn  their  weaknesses  and  their 
strength,  take  advantage  of  this  knowl- 
edge and  profit  thereby. 

A  knowledge  of  music  is  a  very  delight- 
ful accomplishment,  and  does  not  require 
a  great  amount  of  time  or  effort  to  obtain. 
There  are  but  few  things  more  quieting 
[  19  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

and  soothing  to  the  nerves  after  a  day  of 
strenuous  effort  than  music,  and  a  boy  will 
benefit  himself  by  learning  to  play  the 
piano. 


f  20  ] 


SCHOOL  DAYS. 

It  is  a  great  privilege  to  be  able  to  go  to 
school,  but  some  boys  do  not  appreciate 
what  this  privilege  means  to  them;  they 
do  not  stop  to  think  of  the  advantages  of 
an  education.  Your  school  is  the  place  in 
which  you  receive  instruction  in  various 
branches  of  knowledge.  Knowledge  is 
power,  therefore  get  knowledge.  You  can 
learn  only  a  little  at  a  time,  but  if  you  learn 
something  every  day  you  will  possess  con- 
siderable knowledge  in  the  course  of  time. 
School  is  a  place  where  your  mind  may  be 
trained;  where  you  may  learn  how  to 
work,  how  to  concentrate  your  mind,  so 
that  you  will  be  better  able  to  solve  the 
problems  that  must  be  solved  from  day  to 
day,  throughout  your  life. 

When  you  are  in  school  improve  each 
shining  hour,  don't  waste  your  time  or 
your  teacher's  time  with  annoying  and 
frivolous  acts;  there  is  a  time  for  work 

[  21   ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

and  a  time  for  play,  but  don't  try  to  work 
and  play  at  the  same  time;  little  children, 
of  course,  are  expected  to  do  these  foolish 
things,  but  a  boy  ten  years  of  age  is  old 
enough  to  understand  that  school  life  is 
serious  and  that  it  is  time  for  him  to  be- 
gin to  work  and  study.  The  boy  who  can 
study  and  recite  under  the  direction  of  a 
competent  teacher  who  does  not  have 
more  than  six  or  seven  boys  in  the  class 
is  indeed  a  fortunate  boy,  because  when 
the  teacher  has  only  a  small  number  to  in- 
struct he  can  see  to  it  that  each  boy  learns 
and  understands  each  lesson  each  day.  In 
other  words  a  schoolmaster  can  train  six 
boys  each  day  more  thoroughly  than  he 
can  a  class  of  forty  boys,  and  this  is  a  rea- 
son why  some  schools  will  produce  bet- 
ter results  than  others. 

While  you  are  in  school  have  an  object 
in  mind  and  work  toward  it;  you  probably 
will  want  to  go  to  college  later  on,  and  if 
you  have  that  object  in  mind  constantly, 
you  will  obtain  a  more  thorough  prepara- 
tion for  your  college  work,  Preparation 
for  college  is  extremely  important,  and  if 
[  22  ] 


SCHOOL  DAYS 

you  are  carefully  and  thoroughly  pre- 
pared, your  work  in  college  will  be  much 
easier  and  pleasanter.  Learn  while  you 
are  in  school  to  concentrate  all  of  your 
thoughts  on  your  studies,  don't  let  your 
mind  wander  from  one  subject  to  another, 
for  when  you  have  learned  HOW  TO 
CONCENTRATE  then  studying  will  be- 
come simple  and  pleasant,  and  you  will  be 
on  the  high  road  to  success. 

To  become  an  educated  man  you  must 
study  many  things. 

You  must  learn  about  your  own  physical 
development.  Then  about  the  earth  of 
which  you  are  an  inhabitant,  study  its 
geography  and  learn  about  the  different 
countries,  where  each  country  is  located, 
what  kinds  of  climate  it  possesses,  what 
grains  and  vegetables  its  soil  will  produce 
and  its  mineral  resources,  its  accessible 
ports  and  means  of  transportation,  and  es- 
pecially must  yo,u  learn  these  things  about 
your  own  country. 

You  must  learn  about  the  languages, 
literature,  and  characteristics  of  the  dif- 
ferent races  on  the  earth  and  about  their 
[23  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

forms  of  governments,  and  what  indus- 
tries the  inhabitants  of  the  different  coun- 
tries are  engaged  in,  and  the  industrial  and 
social  relations  of  the  people;  also  what 
sports  and  games  they  enjoy. 

Then  you  must  learn  something  about 
the  universe  of  which  the  earth  is  a  part, 
this  brings  you  to  the  study  of  astronomy, 
the  science  which  teaches  the  knowledge 
of  heavenly  bodies. 

You  should  also  study  the  religions  of 
the  different  people  and  especially  the 
Christian  religion.  The  Bible  is  the  best 
guide  for  your  spiritual  and  religious 
thought  and  it  contains  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments which  are  the  basis  of  morals 
and  many  of  the  laws.  A  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  laws  and  principles  of  morality 
are  most  essential  to  your  success,  and 
without  this,  your  education  will  be  in- 
complete. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  world  are  rap- 
idly becoming  educated.  Schools  are  now 
established  in  all  of  the  leading  nations  of 
the  world,  and  in  most  of  them  the  at- 
tendance of  the  children  at  school  for  a 

[  24  ] 


SCHOOL  DAYS 

definite  time  is  made  compulsory  by  the 
law;  for  example,  Japan  with  its  fifty-five 
million  people  living  in  a  country  about 
half  the  size  of  California  is  ninety-eight 
per  cent  literate,  that  is  ninety-eight  per 
cent  of  her  people  know  how  to  read  and 
write;  this  means  great  progress,  and  has 
largely  come  about  in  the  lifetime  of  one 
man. 

The  four  hundred  million  inhabitants  of 
China  are  just  awakening  to  the  advan- 
tages of  our  civilization,  and  are  attempt- 
ing to  establish  a  Republic  similar  to  our 
own,  and  to  follow  our  plan  of  education ; 
and,  they  will  soon  begin  in  earnest  to  de- 
velop the  wonderful  mineral  and  other  re- 
sources of  that  country,  which  as  yet  are 
practically  untouched. 

By  the  wonderful  stimulus  which  has 
been  given  to  education  throughout  the 
world,  great  changes  are  being  wrought  in 
the  lives  of  millions  of  individuals  who  are 
thereby  learning  to  think  for  themselves, 
and  how  to  improve  their  condition  in  life. 

Trade  and  commerce  follow  in  the  trail 
of  science,  education  and  enlightenment, 
and  there  are  many  things  for  you  to  learn 
in  school. 

[  25  ] 


COLLEGE  DAYS. 

A  college  education  is  of  greater  value 
now  than  ever  before,  because  a  greater 
proportion  of  young  men  go  to  college 
nowadays  than  ever  before,  and  in  your 
lifework  you  will  have  to  compete  with 
these  men.  Especially  is  this  true  if  you 
expect  to  enter  upon  a  professional  or  a 
political  career.  The  last  three  Presidents 
of  the  United  States  were  college  men,  one 
a  graduate  of  Harvard,  another  of  Yale, 
and  another  of  Princeton.  But  whatever 
calling  of  life  you  may  pursue  —  college 
days — if  properly  utilized  will  prove  bene- 
ficial to  you,  provided  you  take  them  at  the 
right  period  in  life. 

A  boy  cannot  enter  a  leading  college  un- 
less he  has  had  a  thorough  and  careful 
preparation;  he  ought  to  begin  at  the  age 
of  ten  years  to  prepare  to  enter  college,  and 
he  ought  to  enter  college  when  he  is  six- 
teen to  eighteen  years  old  and  graduate 
[  26  ] 


COLLEGE  DAYS 

therefrom  when  he  is  twenty  to  twenty- 
two  years  old;  he  is  then  ready  to  take  up 
the  real  serious  part  of  his  preparation  for 
life's  work.  If  he  is  to  take  up  a  profes- 
sion, he  must  devote  at  least  three  years 
to  his  professional  studies,  and  he  should 
do  this  while  his  mind  is  young  and  plastic 
and  in  a  receptive  condition,  and  if  he  is 
to  enter  upon  a  business  career  he  should 
begin  to  learn  the  principles  of  business  at 
the  age  of  twenty  to  twenty-two. 

But  we  are  a  little  ahead  of  the  game — 
we  started  to  talk  about  college  days; 
these  are  the  days  that  afford  the  greatest 
opportunities  for  physical,  mental  and 
moral  growth  and  development.  The  op- 
portunity is  with  you,  to  improve  or  waste 
these  days.  You  are  now  away  from  home, 
away  from  the  tender,  kind  and  restrain- 
ing influences  of  your  parents  or  guardian; 
you  are  living  in  a  little  world  of  its  own — 
your  college  world.  During  these  days  you 
will  meet  boys  from  different  parts  of  the 
world,  boys  who  have  different  ideas  and 
habits  from  yours;  among  these  boys  you 
will  find  many  congenial  spirits  and  you 
[  27  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

will  make  many  friends,  fellows  who  will 
be  numbered  among  your  friends  as  long 
as  you  live — therefore  be  careful  of  the  at- 
tachments you  make  in  college,  be  strong 
enough  to  select  your  chums,  select  fel- 
lows who  have  already  developed  a  good 
character. 

"Birds  of  a  feather  flock  together." 

If  you  should  be  so  unfortunate  as  to  fall 
in  with  a  crowd  of  fellows  who  waste  their 
time  in  gambling  or  drinking,  have  the 
strength  and  courage  to  break  away  from 
them,  if  you  don't  they  will  demoralize 
your  habits.  Remember  the  words  of  the 
poet: 

"Vice  is  a  monster  of  such  frightful  mien, 
Which  to  be  hated,  needs  but  to  be  seen, 
But  seen  too  oft — grown  familiar  with  its 

face, 
We  first  endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace." 

Here  are  some  don'ts  to  remember  while 
you  are  in  college : 

don't  gamble, 

don't  drink  intoxicants, 

don't  smoke, 

don't  associate  with  immoral  women. 
[  28  ] 


GAMBLING. 

Don't  waste  your  college  days  or  nights 
playing  cards  for  money.  Gambling  in 
college  is  a  fearful  waste  of  time.  You 
can't  name  one  single  benefit  to  be  derived 
from  gambling  at  cards  in  college.  Some 
one  might  say  it  is  only  a  pastime,  but 
that  is  not  the  way  it  works  out.  Suppose 
you  and  some  of  your  friends  sit  down  at 
eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  for  a  little 
friendly  game  of  poker,  you  expect  to  stop 
at  eleven  o'clock  and  go  to  bed,  but  when 
eleven  o'clock  arrives  some  one  in  the 
party  has  lost  and  wants  to  play  longer 
and  the  game  is  continued  in  this  way  un- 
til the  morning  hours;  you  have  lost  much 
valuable  time  and  sleep  and  you  are  not 
fit  for  your  work  the  next  day.  Perhaps 
you  may  win  a  little  money  and  go  out  and 
squander  it,  for  "come  easy  go  easy"  ap- 
plies. If  you  win  your  chum's  money,  he 
will  feel  badly  and  want  a  chance  to  win  it 
[  29  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

back,  and  if  you  lose,  you  will  want  a 
chance  to  win  back  your  money,  because 
you  can't  afford  to  lose  in  gambling  the 
money  your  parents  send  you  to  use  for 
your  legitimate  expenses — and  so  you  will 
go  on  from  time  to  time  losing  and  squan- 
dering more  money  and  wasting  more  and 
more  time,  and  if  you  persist,  it  may  re- 
sult in  failure  in  your  college  work,  and 
in  disgrace  from  which  it  will  take  you  a 
long  time  to  recover.  Keep  away  from  the 
gamblers  in  college,  for  gambling  often 
becomes  a  mania  with  some  persons,  and 
you  may  be  one  of  them. 


[  30  ] 


INTOXICATION. 

You  are  the  occupant  of  your  human 
machine.  While  you  are  in  a  normal  con- 
dition your  mind  has  complete  control 
over  the  movements  of  your  body,  but  if 
you  take  a  strong  drink  of  whiskey,  or 
other  intoxicants,  or  certain  drugs,  your 
brain  and  nerves  are  at  once  affected,  your 
judgment  becomes  impaired  and  you  lose 
control  of  your  human  machine,  and  while 
you  are  in  this  condition,  even  for  a  short 
time,  almost  anything  may  happen  to  your 
human  machine,  you  may  lose  an  arm  or  a 
leg  or  commit  some  act  from  which  you 
may  never  recover.  Many  accidents  and 
most  crimes  result  from  strong  drink.  It 
can  do  you  no  good — it  injures  the  stom- 
ach and  burns  up  the  cells  of  the  brain. 
The  drink  habit  causes  men  to  lose  confi- 
dence in  the  drinker,  because  he  cannot  be 
relied  upon  at  critical  times.  Many  a  fine 
fellow  has  been  started  on  a  downward 
[  31  ] 


INTOXICATION 

career  by  learning  to  drink  in  college, 
which  has  resulted  in  his  utter  failure  in 
life.  Most  of  the  tramps  and  down  and 
outs,  are  where  they  are,  because  of  the 
drink  habit  acquired  in  youth.  The  risk  is 
too  great  for  you  to  fool  with  it.  There- 
fore have  the  courage  to  say  No  to  any- 
one who  asks  you  to  take  a  drink  of  intox- 
icating liquor  while  you  are  in  college.  If 
you  never  start  to  drink  you  will  have  one 
less  evil  to  overcome. 

If  you  have  not  sufficient  control  over 
yourself  to  resist  "social  drinking"  then 
either  keep  away  from  college,  or  attend 
a  college  which  is  located  in  a  "dry"  com- 
munity. 


[  32  ] 


TOBACCO. 

Leave  tobacco  alone  while  you  are  a 
growing  boy,  it  is  a  narcotic  containing 
some  poison,  it  can't  do  you  any  good,  and 
it  will  do  you  some  harm.  Smoking  stunts 
the  proper  development  of  the  lungs,  it 
will  hold  you  back  in  athletic  sports.  Your 
mind  will  be  better  if  you  don't  smoke,  and 
so  will  your  power  of  endurance.  Just  be- 
cause some  other  fellows  smoke,  is  no  rea- 
son why  you  should  acquire  the  habit. 
Wait  until  you  have  attained  your  full 
physical  development  and  until  you  are 
through  college,  then  if  you  want  to  smoke 
you  will  be  old  enough  to  decide  whether 
you  should  do  so  or  not. 


[  33  ] 


IMMORAL  WOMEN. 

Keep  away  from  an  immoral  woman — 
shun  her  as  you  would  a  rattlesnake — she 
will  do  you  more  harm.  She  is  a  fallen 
woman,  a  degenerate  and  an  outcast;  she 
is  filled  with  disease  and  will  infect  you  if 
she  gets  the  chance ;  from  this  one  mistake 
you  may  never  recover,  and  you  may 
transmit  the  disease  to  your  child  or  chil- 
dren, if  you  should  have  the  power  there- 
after to  be  the  father  of  one.  Keep  clean 
and  free  from  bad  habits.  Remember,  Oh 
Youth !  that  God  has  given  you  reproduc- 
tive organs  for  one  purpose  only,  which  is 
the  reproduction  of  the  human  species 
when  you  have  married.  If  you  violate 
this  law  of  nature  you  will  surely  pay  the 
penalty  of  impaired  health,  strength  and 
mentality. 

A  well  known  physician  has  written  the 
following: 

"The  observance  of  a  like  standard  of 
[  34  ] 


IMMORAL  WOMEN 

morals  for  men  and  women,  and  the  pub- 
lic recognition  by  society  at  large  of  na- 
ture's inexorable  decree,  that  physical  and 
moral  hygiene  must  be  identical  for  the 
two  sexes,  if  the  health  and  vigor  of  the 
nation  shall  continue.  Full  knowledge 
that  certain  diseases  which  are  now  recog- 
nized as  factors  in  depopulating  civilized 
nations,  and  are  widespread  in  our  own 
America,  appear  to  be  the  most  certainly 
prevented  by  one  means — the  education  of 
our  women  in  the  necessity  of  demanding 
of  their  husbands,  sons  and  friends,  lives 
as  clean  as  their  own,  and  therefore  as  free 
from  the  likelihood  of  transmitting  dis- 
ease. *  *  * 

"That  it  is  the  consensus  of  opinion 
among  physicians  in  America  and 
throughout  the  world,  that  illicit  inter- 
course is  neither  necessary  nor  advantage- 
ous to  the  health  and  vigor  of  any  male  or 
female,  on  the  contrary  it  renders  the  in- 
dividual liable  to  dangers  that  immedi- 
ately assail  the  integrity  of  the  home,  and 
the  health  and  welfare  of  the  community 
at  large.  *  *  * 

[  35  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

"No  youth  is  to  be  alarmed  at  nocturnal 
phenomena  on  the  ground  that  they  will 
cost  him  dear.  The  extent  of  the  loss  thus 
involved,  if  it  be  determined  wholly  by  in- 
ternal causes  and  in  the  absence  of  previ- 
ous habits  which  have  thrown  the  whole 
neuro  chemical  mechanism  out  of  order, 
is  wholly  negligible,  as  is  the  loss  involved 
in  fatherhood." 

Remember  that  during  college  days  you 
are  building  a  character,  it  is  a  formative 
period  of  life,  and  the  character  you  there 
form  will  be  remembered  for  many  years 
after  by  your  college  friends. 

We     have     discussed     some     of     the 
"Don'ts,"  now  let  us  consider  some  of  the 
things  you  should  do  while  in  college: 
studies, 
athletics, 
public  speaking, 
friendships. 

There  are  twenty-four  hours  in  a  day, 
how  shall  a  college  boy  spend  those  hours? 

Eight  hours  in  sleep, 

three  hours  at  meals, 

four  hours  for  recreation  and  athletics, 

nine  hours  for  study  and  lectures. 
[  36  ] 


STUDIES. 

Nothing  to  do  but  live  and  learn !  Think 
of  how  much  you  can  learn  by  studying 
nine  hours  a  day  for  four  years !  Here  you 
have  plenty  of  time  to  train  your  mind  by 
the  solution  of  mathematical  problems,  to 
study  the  ancient  and  modern  languages, 
to  learn  the  elemental  principles  of 
sciences  such  as  chemistry,  physics,  as- 
tronomy, jurisprudence,  political  and  so- 
cial economics,  and  to  learn  the  art  of  pub- 
lic speaking  and  debating. 

Do  your  work  each  and  every  day,  and 
you  will  have  no  trouble  in  regard  to  your 
standing  in  classes,  or  in  passing  your  ex- 
aminations and  obtaining  your  diploma 
at  commencement  time. 

But  if  you  neglect  your  studies  from  day 
to  day,  expecting  to  make  up  for  lost  time 
by  cramming  and  tutoring  for  examina- 
tions, you  are  doomed  to  disappointment 
and  regrets  in  after  years  for  the  oppor- 
[  37  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

tunities  you  have  lost.  Don't  forget  this 
from  day  to  day,  because  I  am  telling  you 
the  facts.  Do  your  work  each  day  and 
form  good  habits  and  your  college  career 
will  be  a  success,  otherwise  a  failure. 


[  38  ] 


ATHLETICS. 

Every  fellow  when  he  enters  college 
should  take  up  some  athletic  sport — golf, 
tennis,  foot-ball,  baseball,  lacross,  track 
athletics,  etc.,  and  he  should  make  a  strong 
effort  to  become  a  member  of  a  college 
team.  You  of  course  will  not  be  conceited 
enough  to  expect  to  make  the  highest  col- 
lege team  while  you  are  a  freshman,  al- 
though it  is  possible  you  may  succeed,  but 
the  chances  are  against  you.  Study  your 
own  physical  qualifications,  and  carefully 
make  up  your  mind  what  team  you  can 
most  likely  make  and  then  go  after  it. 
Train  regularly  every  day  for  that  partic- 
ular sport,  the  continuous  effort  is  what 
counts — remember  that  a  class  of  seniors 
graduates  every  year  and  the  vacancies  on 
the  teams  thus  caused  must  be  filled  by 
students  in  the  other  classes,  and  those 
who  have  best  qualified  themselves  will 
be  selected.  But  even  if  you  don't  make 
[  39  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

one  of  the  teams  during  your  college 
course — if  you  have  carefully  trained  dur- 
ing the  four  years  you  will  have  received 
an  enormous  benefit — provided  you  have 
trained  wisely.  By  training  I  mean  (1) 
regular  daily  exercise,  (2)  properly  se- 
lected food,  (3)  no  smoking  or  intoxicants, 
(4)  eight  hours  sleep  each  night,  (5)  daily 
bowel  movement  and  bath,  (6)  proper  care 
of  the  teeth. 

Many  fellows  in  college  are  lacking  in 
continuity,  that  is  continuous  effort,  they 
have  not  learned  the  power  of  concentra- 
tion. The  fellow  who  concentrates  is  gen- 
erally a  winner.  If  you  postpone  from  day 
to  day  your  training,  the  time  for  the  test 
arrives  before  you  are  ready,  and  you  lose. 
Stick  to  it,  keep  at  it  day  after  day  until 
the  day  of  trial  arrives,  you  are  then  pre- 
pared, and  may  win.  Success  in  almost 
everything  lies  in  the  preparation  for  trial. 
This  is  true  in  athletics,  in  your  studies, 
and  in  the  tests  and  trials  that  come  in 
after  years  of  business  or  professional  life. 

We  agreed  on  spending  four  hours  each 
day  during  the  four  college  years  on  ath- 
[  40  ] 


ATHLETICS 

letics  and  recreation,  and  if  you  stick  to  it, 
your  muscles  will  be  strong  and  supple, 
your  lungs  will  be  well  developed,  and  the 
muscles  of  your  heart  strong,  and  your  di- 
gestion good.  In  addition  you  will  have 
accumulated  strong  nerve  reserve  force 
and  kept  your  brain  clear,  so  that  the  cells 
therein  have  been  increased  sufficiently  to 
store  away  for  future  reference  the  knowl- 
edge you  have  gained  during  your  four 
years  of  studies.  Don't  you  believe  this 
equipment  is  worth  the  effort  to  get  it? 
You  can  have  it,  if  you  will  only  go  after 
it  and  get  it. 


I  41  ] 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING. 

The  fellows  I  knew  in  my  college  days 
who  were  smart  and  wise  enough  to  train 
themselves  in  the  art  of  public  speaking 
are  today  (twenty-seven  years  after) 
among  the  most  successful  men — whether 
they  have  engaged  in  business  or  profes- 
sional work.  Civilized  men  work  in 
groups — and  the  leaders  of  these  groups 
must  be  able  at  all  times  to  rise  to  their 
feet  and  express  their  thoughts  intelli- 
gently, but  no  one  can  do  this  well  the  first 
time  he  tries,  he  requires  experience  and 
training.  The  earlier  a  boy  begins  in  this 
work  the  easier  it  will  be  for  him,  but  cer- 
tainly during  his  college  days  he  ought  to 
take  full  advantage  of  the  opportunities 
there  afforded  him  for  training  in  debat- 
ing and  public  speaking. 

In  nearly  all  of  the  colleges  there  are 
societies  which  have  been  organized  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  training  the  students 
[42.] 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

in  speaking  and  debating.  These  societies 
have  their  own  Halls  and  are  permanent 
institutions,  the  members  generally  meet 
on  Friday  night  of  each  week — join  one  of 
them  and  work.  Here  you  will  have  an 
opportunity  each  week  to  speak  a  decla- 
mation before  a  small  audience,  or  deliver 
an  oration  or  read  an  essay,  or  participate 
in  a  debate.  It  isn't  an  easy  thing  to  do, 
you  will  be  embarrassed  probably  every 
time  you  try  it,  you  will  be  easily  discour- 
aged, for  you  will  frequently  hear  some 
fellows  ridicule  and  makelight  of  the  work 
in  the  Halls,  but  they  know  not  whereof 
they  speak,  they  are  ignorant  and  inex- 
perienced, therefore  pay  no  attention  to 
their  foolish  remarks,  but  keep  to  your 
work  in  the  Halls  and  you  will  find,  when 
you  are  out  of  college  that  the  work  you  did 
in  the  Halls  is  of  the  greatest  value  to  you. 
Every  boy  hates  to  be  laughed  at,  and 
when  he  is  standing  before  a  crowd  of  his 
fellows  it  is  very  likely  that  in  his  embar- 
rassment he  may  do  something  to  cause  a 
ripple  of  laughter — but  don't  let  that  dis- 
courage you — try  it  over  and  over  again, 
[  43  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

and  in  the  course  of  time  you  will  over- 
come your  embarrassment,  and  you  will 
have  such  control  over  your  thoughts  and 
words  that  you  will  have  no  difficulty  in 
speaking  before  an  audience.  There  is  no 
better  place  than  a  college  to  learn  how  to 
do  this. 

It  is  said  of  Daniel  Webster  that  when 
he  made  his  first  attempts  at  public  speak- 
ing in  college,  he  was  so  embarrassed  and 
confused  that  his  efforts  were  complete 
failures,  and  this  is  true  of  nearly  every 
one  I  have  known;  but  Webster  kept  at  it, 
as  have  thousands  of  others  until  they 
have  acquired  the  ability  to  speak  well  in 
public. 

In  order  to  be  self-possessed  you  must 
be  subject  possessed,  in  other  words,  you 
must  have  some  thoughts  on  the  subject 
on  which  you  are  to  speak,  you  must  study 
these  out  beforehand,  and  know  well  about 
what  you  are  going  to  say  when  it  comes 
your  turn  to  speak. 

Look  at  the  men  in  public  life  today 
holding  the  principal  offices  such  as  Presi- 
dent, Senators,  Representatives,  Govern- 
[  44  ] 


PUBLIC  SPEAKING 

ors,  etc.,  what  is  their  principal  asset?  It 
is  the  ability  to  think  and  speak  forcefully 
upon  the  public  questions  of  the  day. 
Their  ability  to  speak  in  public  gives  them 
the  leadership. 

The  minister  of  the  gospel  must  neces- 
sarily be  a  good  speaker,  and  so  must  the 
lawyer  who  would  properly  plead  the 
cause  of  his  client  before  a  court  or  jury. 
The  bankers  have  their  associations,  as  do 
the  merchants,  and  the  manufacturers, 
and  the  railroad  managers,  and  the  physi- 
cians and  surgeons,  and  the  lawyers  and 
the  laborers;  and  all  have  their  regular 
meetings,  and  at  these  meetings  the  lead- 
ers are  required  to  speak  in  public.  In 
fact,  whatever  may  be  your  avocation  in 
life,  the  ability  to  speak  in  public  is  in 
greater  demand  now  than  ever  before,  and 
it  will  continue  to  be  so  as  time  goes  on, 
and  civilization  becomes  more  complex. 
Therefore,  I  adjure  you,  learn  to  speak  in 
public  while  you  are  in  college. 


[  45  ] 


COLLEGE  FRIENDS. 

If  you  are  the  right  sort  of  a  fellow  you 
will  make  many  friends  while  you  are  in 
college,  but  the  fellows  there  have  plenty 
of  time  to  study  each  other  and  your  real 
worth  is  soon  found  out,  and  your  charac- 
ter, such  as  it  is,  is  known  to  them.  Be 
honest,  industrious,  attractive  and  natural 
yourself,  and  select  for  your  friends  fel- 
lows who  have  such  qualities. 

"A  friend  is  a  person  whom  you  know 
intimately,  in  whose  honor  and  integrity 
you  have  full  confidence,  a  person  with 
whom  you  love  to  be  and  to  talk;  a  person 
with  whom  you  have  had  many  experi- 
ences, whom  you  have  tried  and  not  found 
wanting;  a  person  with  whom  you  can 
think  aloud  and  with  whom  you  know 
your  words  and  thoughts  are  safe,  and  yet 
with  whom  you  may  disagree  on  many 
things  and  still  be  friends." 

It  is  one  of  the  pleasantest  things  in  life 
[  46  ] 


COLLEGE  FRIENDS 

to  be  and  converse  with  your  friend;  with 
him  your  own  thoughts  broaden  and  de- 
velop and  take  on  a  substantive  form,  and 
so  with  him. 

You  should  make  many  friends  while 
you  are  in  college,  but  in  order  to  do  this 
you  must  mingle  with  your  associates — 
you  will  not  make  many  friends  if  you  are 
a  recluse.  In  after  days  you  will  meet 
your  college  friends  in  various  parts  of  the 
world,  and  they  will  be  a  great  source  of 
pleasure  to  you,  and  you,  I  hope,  to  them. 


WORKING  YOUR  WAY  THROUGH 
COLLEGE. 

If  your  parents  or  guardian  cannot  af- 
ford to  pay  your  expenses  through  college, 
don't  let  a  little  thing  like  that  deter  you 
from  going  through  college,  but  work  and 
earn  the  money  yourself.  Find  a  college 
where  you  can  obtain  a  scholarship  if  nec- 
essary. There  are  many  things  you  can 
do  in  college  which  will  enable  you  to  earn 
at  least  a  portion  of  your  expenses  during 
the  college  terms,  and  you  can  earn  more 
during  the  college  vacations.  Be  open  and 
frank  about  your  financial  needs — men  are 
always  willing  to  help  a  fellow  who  is  try- 
ing to  obtain  an  education. 

There  are  always  some  fellows  in  col- 
lege who  need  to  be  tutored,  you  can  make 
some  money  at  that,  if  you  are  sufficiently 
prepared  for  that  kind  of  work;  or  you 
may  get  on  the  college  paper  and  earn 
some  money  as  an  embryo  editor,  or  by 

[  48   ] 


WORKING  WAY  THROUGH  COLLEGE 

soliciting  advertisements,  or  by  acting  as 
a  manufacturer's  agent,  or  by  running  an 
eating  club,  or  doing  ordinary  chores  for 
persons  who  live  in  your  college  town. 
There  are  many  other  ways  to  earn  money 
at  this  time  which  you  can  devise  if  you 
give  the  subject  proper  thought,  but  it  will 
be  necessary  for  you  to  get  right  down  to 
hard  work  and  cut  out  foolishness. 

Of  course,  if  you  have  to  work  your  way 
through  college — you  may  not  be  able  to 
graduate  quite  so  young  as  if  you  were 
backed  by  a  well-to-do  parent,  and  you 
will  have  to  economize  on  your  hours  of 
recreation  and  eating,  nevertheless  don't 
press  so  hard  that  you  will  impair  your 
health,  for  health  is  more  important  than 
education. 


COLLEGE  VACATIONS. 

A  youth  in  college  does  not  need  three 
months  of  rest  during  the  summer  time. 
One  month  of  rest  or  travel  at  that  time  is 
sufficient;  spend  the  balance  of  your  sum- 
mer learning  something  useful.  If  you  ex- 
pect to  become  a  lawyer,  ask  some  lawyer 
to  let  you  work  and  read  law  in  his  office 
during  two  months  of  the  summer  vaca- 
tion. If  you  are  going  into  business,  get 
the  privilege  of  working  in  some  business 
establishment  during  most  of  your  sum- 
mer vacation.  By  so  doing  you  will  learn 
something  useful  instead  of  frittering 
away  your  time. 

Yes,  a  college  education  is  worth  all  this 
effort  and  more;  you  may  forget  your 
higher  mathematics,  and  how  to  read 
Greek  and  Latin  soon  after  you  get  out  of 
college,  and  you  may  feel  for  many  years 
afterwards  that  they  were  a  waste  of  time 
— but  sooner  or  later  Seneca,  and  Cicero, 
[  50  ] 


COLLEGE  VACATIONS 

and  Demosthenes  will  begin  to  draw  you 
back  to  them,  and  you  will  take  them  off 
your  book  shelf  and  read  them  again  (in 
English)  with  a  pleasure  and  enjoyment 
you  never  dreamed  in  college  would  be 
possible. 

We  only  live  one  life  on  this  earth,  so 
while  we  are  living  it  let  us  get  everything 
good  out  of  it  we  can;  and  if  while  in  col- 
lege you  have  stored  away  in  your  mind 
some  of  the  great  thoughts  which  are  to  be 
found  in  the  best  literature  of  the  world, 
you  will  probably  be  able  to  create  for 
yourself  a  philosophy  of  life,  which  at  least 
satisfies  you,  and  will  make  you  feel  that 
college  days  were  worth  while. 


[  51  ] 


AFTER  COLLEGE,  WHAT? 

What  is  your  ambition? 

Do  you  want  to  enter  public  life,  or  prac- 
tice law,  or  preach  the  gospel,  or  heal  the 
sick,  or  edit  a  paper,  or  teach  the  young, 
or  operate  a  railroad,  or  run  a  bank,  or  till 
the  soil,  or  mine  minerals,  or  build  build- 
ings, or  operate  gas  and  electric  and  power 
plants,  or  manufacture  or  sell  merchan- 
dise, or  become  an  agitator,  or  do  a  thou- 
sand and  one  other  things?  The  list  is  a 
long  one  for  you  to  select  from,  and  you 
must  decide  what  service  you  are  best  qual- 
ified to  perform  and  most  likely  to  attain 
success  in.  You  may  not  guess  right  the 
first  time,  and  you  may  have  to  make  sev- 
eral guesses  before  you  find  the  place  in 
which  you  fit. 

You  often  hear  it  said  that  the  profes- 
sions are  filled  to  overflowing,  well,  that  is 
true  to  an  extent,  but  it  is  not  more  diffi- 
cult to  succeed  in  a  professional  career 
[  52  ] 


AFTER  COLLEGE,  WHAT? 

than  in  a  business  career;  patience,  con- 
centration, integrity,  ability,  courage  and 
continuous  effort  are  required  in  all  avoca- 
tions. 

The  period  of  business  or  professional 
activity  is  not  very  long,  the  older  men 
are  continually  passing  on  to  their  just  re- 
ward and  younger  men  take  their  places, 
and  the  fellow  who  is  best  prepared  to 
carry  the  burden  of  leadership  will  be 
called  when  the  time  arrives  for  him  to 
take  the  load.  He  in  turn  will  carry  it  as 
long  as  he  can  and  then  shift  it  again  to 
younger  shoulders. 

I  don't  mean  by  this  that  I  would  advise 
a  young  man  to  disregard  the  old  adage, 
"Don't  wait  to  step  in  a  dead  man's  boots," 
because  he  may  outlive  you — and  besides, 
the  fellows  whose  burdens  he  has  been  car- 
rying may  not  want  you  to  take  his  place, 
they  may  believe  someone  else  is  better 
qualified  than  you. 

If  you  decide  to  enter  upon  a  profes- 
sional career,  you  of  course  will  pursue 
your  studies  at  a  school  where  the  prin- 
ciples of  your  chosen  profession  are 
[  53  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

taught.  You  will  find  life  quite  different 
then  from  what  it  has  been  in  college.  The 
boys  have  grown  to  be  men,  they  are  more 
serious  and  more  determined,  and  have  be- 
gun to  specialize  in  the  work  they  expect 
to  make  their  life  work. 

Even  if  you  do  not  expect  to  practice 
law  as  a  profession,  a  course  of  three  years 
study  in  a  first  class  law  school  will  give 
you  a  most  excellent  foundation  for  a  busi- 
ness career,  especially  if  you  expect  to  be 
associated  with  large  corporations.  The 
laws  are  so  many  and  complex  nowadays, 
I  often  wonder  how  a  man  in  charge  of 
large  business  interests  is  able  to  success- 
fully direct  its  affairs  when  he  is  not 
versed  in  the  laws;  of  course  the  answer  is, 
he  generally  has  a  lawyer  at  his  right  hand 
with  whom  he  frequently  confers  and  ad- 
vises. The  chief  executives  of  many  of  our 
largest  corporations  today  are  men  who 
have  been  trained  in  the  law,  and  the  de- 
mand for  the  services  of  lawyers  in  this 
respect  will  increase  as  civilization  devel- 
ops and  the  laws  become  still  more  intri- 
cate. 

[  54  ] 


AFTER  COLLEGE,  WHAT? 

A  three  years'  course  in  law  will  do 
more  to  bring  a  wild,  reckless  or  careless 
young  man  to  his  senses  than  anything 
else  I  know  about,  for  the  reason  that  each 
day  he  is  studying  criminal  law  there  is 
impressed  upon  his  mind  the  punish- 
ments which  are  given  to  wrongdoers,  and 
in  studying  contracts  and  damages  he 
learns  the  result  of  negligent  or  careless 
acts.  At  the  same  time  other  studies,  such 
as  property  rights,  equity,  etc.,  furnish  his 
mind  with  plenty  of  food  for  thought. 

Every  fellow  must  decide  for  himself 
what  career  he  will  enter  upon,  and  many 
make  this  decision  while  they  are  in  col- 
lege, and  select  some  of  the  courses  which 
will  be  most  helpful  to  them  later  on.  The 
parent  is  always  very  much  interested  in 
this  decision.  I  remember  during  the  last 
few  days  of  my  senior  year  in  college  I 
spent  a  day  or  two  with  one  of  my  class- 
mates at  his  home  in  New  York;  his  father 
was  a  very  successful  manufacturer  and 
merchant  and  called  me  aside  to  talk  with 
me  about  his  son's  future  career;  he 
wanted  to  know  what  I  thought  his  son 
[  55  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

ought  to  do,  and  I  told  him  I  believed  his 
son  was  especially  qualified  to  go  into  bus- 
iness with  him,  which  seemed  to  please  the 
father  very  much,  for  that  was  what  he 
wanted  his  son  to  do.  But  the  son  had  a 
different  idea,  he  wanted  to  become  a  min- 
ister of  the  gospel,  and  the  father  very 
wisely  let  him  have  his  way.  Well,  he  be- 
came a  very  fine  minister,  and  several 
years  afterwards  I  heard  him  preach  one 
of  the  best  sermons  I  ever  listened  to,  but 
his  father's  interests  were  so  large,  that  as 
the  years  passed  by,  the  father  needed  this 
son's  help  more  and  more,  and  he  eventu- 
ally won,  and  the  son  became  as  successful 
in  business  affairs  as  he  had  been  at 
preaching. 

Discuss  the  question  of  your  future  ca- 
reer with  your  associates,  your  parents, 
and  with  men  in  whom  you  have  confi- 
dence; give  careful  consideration  to  what 
they  tell  you,  but  after  all,  you  must  decide 
this  question  for  yourself.  But  "having 
put  your  hand  to  the  plow,  don't  look 
back,"  at  least  until  you  have  given  the 
matter  a  thorough  test  and  you  are  certain 
you  have  made  a  mistake  which  should  be 
corrected. 

[  56  ] 


BUSINESS. 

Persons  engage  in  business  for  the  pur- 
pose of  earning  a  livelihood,  or  to  obtain 
a  larger  income.  Business  occupies  the 
time,  attention  and  labor  of  persons  or 
corporations  seeking  income.  Business  is 
any  particular  occupation  or  employment 
which  a  person  engages  in  for  gain.  In 
its  broadest  sense  business  includes  nearly 
all  the  affairs  in  which  either  an  individual 
or  a  corporation  can  be  actors. 

A  person  who  buys  and  sells  groceries  is 
engaged  in  the  business  of  a  groceryman. 

A  railroad  corporation  is  engaged  in  the 
business  of  transporting  persons  and  prop- 
erty for  hire. 

A  municipal  corporation  is  engaged  in 
the  business  of  conducting  city  or  public 
affairs. 

In  early  times  when  a  farmer  employed 
a  person  to  labor  for  him  he  gave  him  a 
portion  of  his  crops  in  payment  for  his 
[  57  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

services,  but  as  civilization  advanced  such 
payments  became  inconvenient  and  so  the 
government  of  each  country  established  a 
medium  of  exchange  which  is  called 


[  58  ] 


MONEY. 

Money  bears  the  stamp  or  seal  of  the 
government  which  has  created  it.  Money 
is  a  representation  of  value,  and  is  the 
measure  by  which  persons  estimate  the 
value  of  their  property  and  services.  A 
person  who  is  about  to  travel  into  a  for- 
eign country  uses  the  money  of  his  own 
country  to  purchase  the  money  which  is 
in  current  use  in  the  country  through 
which  he  intends  to  travel,  so  in  this  way 
money  is  frequently  used  to  purchase 
money  as  well  as  other  commodities. 

Capital  is  the  sum  of  money,  or  prop- 
erty, which  is  used  as  the  basis  for  con- 
ducting a  business. 

Nearly  every  business  must  have  capital 
with  which  it  may  support  its  credit  and 
pay  its  losses;  and  if  the  business  is  suc- 
cessful the  capital  will  be  increased  by 
profits. 

Business  is  conducted  principally  by  in- 
dividuals, partnerships  or  corporations. 
[  59  ] 


BUSINESS  BY  INDIVIDUALS. 

Let  us  assume  a  man  whom  we  will 
name  Mr.  Farmer  owns  100  acres  of  land 
covered  with  fine  timber  which  he  decides 
to  convert  into  lumber  and  sell.  He  finds, 
however,  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  erect 
on  his  land  a  saw  mill  which  will  cost  sev- 
eral thousand  dollars,  but  not  having  the 
money  or  capital  with  which  to  purchase 
the  necessary  machinery  and  employ  la- 
borers to  cut  down  the  trees  and  operate 
the  machinery  he  goes  to  his  neighbor  Mr. 
Banker,  who  has  saved  up  some  money, 
and  borrows  the  necessary  amount  from 
him  for  a  period  of  five  years,  and  gives 
him  his  promissory  note  to  repay  the 
money  borrowed  at  the  expiration  of  five 
years  together  with  interest  at  the  rate  of 
6%  per  annum,  and  in  addition  to  the  note 
Mr.  Farmer  gives  Mr.  Banker  a  mortgage 
on  his  100  acres  of  land;  by  the  terms  of 
the  mortgage  Mr.  Farmer  agrees  that  if 
[  60  ] 


BUSINESS  BY  INDIVIDUALS 

he  does  not  repay  the  money  borrowed 
and  interest  within  the  time  agreed  upon, 
then  Mr.  Banker  shall  have  the  right  to 
have  the  mortgaged  property  sold  for  the 
purpose  of  paying  the  debt  due  Mr. 
Banker. 

Mr.  Farmer  having  thus  procured  the 
capital  needed  to  purchase  the  machinery 
and  to  pay  his  employees,  engages  in  the 
industry  of  manufacturing  and  selling 
lumber  as  an  individual,  and  after  his  lum- 
ber business  has  made  enough  money  to 
enable  him  to  pay  back  all  of  the  money 
which  he  borrowed,  the  rest  of  the  money 
which  he  receives  from  the  sale  of  his  lum- 
ber, after  payment  of  the  expenses  of  the 
business,  belongs  to  him,  and  represents 
the  profits  he  has  made  out  of  his  lumber 
manufacturing  business. 


[  61  ] 


BUSINESS  BY  PARTNERSHIP. 

Mr.  Farmer  owns  100  acres  of  timber 
land,  which  we  will  assume  is  worth  $10,- 
000,  and  he  invites  Mr.  Banker,  who  has 
$10,000  in  money,  to  enter  into  a  partner- 
ship with  him,  by  which  he,  Farmer,  will 
furnish  the  100  acres  of  land  in  question, 
and  Banker  will  furnish  $10,000  in  money, 
which  is  to  be  used  as  capital  for  purchas- 
ing the  necessary  saw  mill  machinery  and 
payment  of  the, laborers  for  their  services 
in  cutting  down  the  trees,  operating  the 
saw  mill  and  converting  the  timber  into 
lumber.  Farmer  and  Banker  then  enter 
into  a  partnership  agreement  by  which 
they  agree  to  conduct  the  business  for  a 
definite  number  of  years  under  the  name 
of  Farmer  &  Banker  and  to  divide  the 
profits  or  losses  of  the  business  equally  be- 
tween them  because  each  has  contributed 
equally  to  the  capital  of  the  firm,  one  hav- 
ing furnished  timber  land  worth  $10,000 
[  62  ] 


BUSINESS  BY  PARTNERSHIP 

and  the  other  $10,000  in  money.  Under 
the  law  each  of  these  individual  partners 
is  personally  liable  for  all  of  the  debts  of 
the  partnership. 


[  63  ] 


BUSINESS  BY  CORPORATIONS. 

Farmer  having  the  100  acres  of  timber 
land  in  question  decides  that  he  will  or- 
ganize a  business  corporation  for  the  pur- 
pose of  manufacturing  lumber. 

A  business  corporation  is  an  association 
of  individuals  organized  under  the  law  for 
the  purpose  of  conducting  a  certain  busi- 
ness under  a  certain  name,  and  has  the 
right — among  others — to  issue  stock  cer- 
tificates to  its  members  and  to  issue  bonds 
which  are  the  promise  of  the  corporation 
to  pay  back  in  a  certain  time  the  money 
loaned  to  it. 

Mr.  Farmer  organizes  a  corporation 
which  he  decides  to  name  Farmer  Lumber 
Company  with  a  capital  stock  of  $20,000 
divided  into  200  shares  of  the  par  value 
of  $100  each.  He  himself  subscribes 
for  $10,000  of  the  capital  stock,  and 
in  order  to  pay  for  the  stock  con- 
veys his  timber  land  which  is  reason- 
[  64  ] 


BUSINESS  BY  CORPORATIONS 

ably  worth  $10,000  to  the  corporation 
and  takes  in  exchange  therefor  one 
hundred  shares  of  capital  stock  of  the  par 
value  of  $100  each;  he  then  invites  his 
friend  Banker  to  subscribe  for  50  shares 
of  stock  for  which  he  pays  $5,000,  and  he 
invites  other  persons  to  purchase  the  re- 
maining $5,000  worth  of  stock.  All  of  the 
$20,000  of  stock  having  been  subscribed 
and  paid  for,  the  State  under  the  laws  of 
which  the  corporation  is  organized,  issues 
a  charter  to  the  Farmer  Lumber  Company 
which  authorizes  it  to  proceed  to  do  busi- 
ness as  a  lumber  manufacturing  company. 
The  stockholders  hold  a  first  meeting  at 
which  they  elect  a  board  of  directors  con- 
sisting of  3  or  5  (or  some  other  number) 
of  their  stockholders.  The  directors  of 
the  corporation  then  hold  a  separate  meet- 
ing and  elect  a  President,  Vice  President, 
Secretary  and  Treasurer,  and  adopt  a  set 
of  by-laws  which  provides  for  the  holding 
of  stockholders'  meetings  and  directors' 
meetings,  and  the  duties  of  the  various 
officers,  and  the  issuance  of  certificates  of 
capital  stock,  and  various  other  provisions 
[  65  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

pertaining  to  the  conduct  of  its  business. 

The  Farmer  Lumber  Company  is  now 
completely  organized  and  proceeds  to  do 
business.  It  owns  the  100  acres  of  timber 
land  and  has  sufficient  money  or  capital 
with  which  to  pay  for  the  necessary  ma- 
chinery and  hire  the  necessary  employees 
to  cut  down  the  timber  and  manufacture 
it  into  lumber  and  sell  it. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  year  the  stock- 
holders meet  and  find  that  the  business  of 
the  corporation  has  been  successfully  con- 
ducted and  that  it  has  made  a  profit  out  of 
the  sale  of  its  lumber  and  the  company 
having  sufficient  surplus,  a  dividend  of  $5, 
$6  or  $10  a  share  (whatever  the  profits 
justify)  is  paid  to  the  stockholders.  This 
is  called  income  from  property,  the  money 
which  the  employees  receive  for  labor,  is 
called  income  from  services. 

At  the  end  of  the  second  year  the  cor- 
poration finds  that  it  will  be  to  its  advan- 
tage to  buy  another  100  acres  of  timber 
land  adjacent  to  its  property,  which  will 
cost  $10,000,  and  the  corporation  not  hav- 
ing sufficient  surplus  decides  to  borrow 
[  66  ] 


BUSINESS  BY  CORPORATIONS 

$10,000,  the  proceeds  of  which  it  proposes 
to  use  to  purchase  100  acres  of  timber  land, 
and  in  order  to  secure  the  proposed  loan 
conveys  all  of  its  property  to  a  trustee  to 
hold  in  trust  for  the  benefit  of  the  owner 
or  owners  of  bonds  which  the  lumber  com- 
pany shall  issue  under  the  provisions  of  its 
said  mortgage  or  deed  of  trust. 

The  lumber  company  then  executes  ten 
bonds,  each  for  the  sum  of  $1,000,  by 
which  the  lumber  company  promises  to 
pay  at  a  certain  time  $1,000  to  the  holder 
of  the  bond  and  interest  thereon  at  the 
rate  of  5%  per  annum,  and  in  the  event 
the  lumber  company  shall  fail  to  pay  these 
bonds  and  interest  as  provided,  the  trustee 
may  take  the  property  of  the  lumber  com- 
pany, and  sell  it  for  the  purpose  of  paying 
the  indebtedness  due  to  the  bondholders. 

We  have  thus  considered  in  a  general 
manner  only  the  three  most  common  ways 
of  conducting  business,  that  is  by  individ- 
uals, partnerships  and  corporations. 

A  great  many  businesses  are  conducted 
by  individuals  and  by  partnerships,  but  by 
far  the  greatest  volume  of  business,  not 
[  67  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

only  in  our  country  but  throughout  the 
civilized  world,  is  carried  on  through  cor- 
porate organizations. 

Among  the  advantages  of  conducting 
business  through  corporations  are  the  fol- 
lowing: 

One:  The  corporation  may  be  organ- 
ized to  exist  perpetually,  or  for  a  very  long 
period  of  years,  much  longer  than  the  life 
of  an  individual. 

Two:  When  the  corporation  has  been 
paid  the  par  value  of  its  share  of  stock, 
the  stockholder  is  not  required  by  the  law 
of  most  states  to  make  any  further  pay- 
ment if  the  company  becomes  insolvent, 
while  in  the  case  of  business  conducted  by 
an  individual  or  by  partnership,  each  in- 
dividual is  liable  for  all  of  the  debts  of  the 
business  except,  however,  certain  limited 
partnerships.  In  the  case  of  banking  cor- 
porations the  rule  is  different,  in  that  the 
stockholders  have  double  liability. 

Three:  Very  large  amounts  of  capital 
may  be  obtained  for  business  through  cor- 
porate organizations.  Corporations  hav- 
ing a  capital  of  a  billion  dollars  or  more, 
[  68  ] 


BUSINESS  BY  CORPORATIONS 

and  forty  thousand,  and  even  a  hundred 
thousand  stockholders  (most  of  whom  are 
strangers  to  each  other)  are  not  uncom- 
mon in  this  day  of  big  business.  The  busi- 
ness of  such  large  corporations  extends 
throughout  the  world,  and  such  corpora- 
tions are  generally  an  advantage  to  the 
people  of  the  country  in  which  they  are 
organized,  because  they  bring  into  their 
home  country  money  received  through 
trade  in  foreign  countries,  which  means 
more  employment  for  the  citizens  of  the 
home  of  the  world  trading  corporation. 

In  the  management  of  a  great  corpora- 
tion there  are  several  different  interests 
which  require  constant  consideration. 

One:  The  stockholders  and  bondhold- 
ers provide  the  capital  to  create  the  busi- 
ness, and  if  the  business  is  not  successful 
the  capital  will  be  withdrawn  and  the  busi- 
ness discontinued,  or  reorganized  on  a 
new  basis. 

Two :    The  directors  and  officers  of  the 
corporation,  who  must  skillfully  and  hon- 
estly manage  the  affairs  of  the  company 
or  the  business  will  fail. 
[  69  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

Three:  The  employees,  who  must  co- 
operate with  the  officers  and  render  valu- 
able services  to  make  the  business  a  suc- 
cess, and  be  paid  reasonable  compensa- 
tion. 

Four:  The  public,  who  purchase  the 
commodity  of  the  corporation,  must  be 
fairly  dealt  with  or  the  corporation  will 
not  have  business. 


[  70  ] 


VARIOUS  OCCUPATIONS. 

It  is  interesting  and  instructive  to  know 
something  of  the  number  of  persons  en- 
gaged in  the  various  business  occupations 
in  the  United  States. 

The  United  States  census  for  the  year 
1910  shows  in  a  general  way  the  business 
occupations  of  nearly  40,000,000  citizens 
of  the  United  States  as  follows: 

In  the  business  of  agriculture,  forestry 
and  of  animal  industry  nearly  13,000,000 
persons  are  employed,  of  whom  nearly 
6,000,000  are  farm  laborers. 

In  the  business  of  mining  minerals  such 
as  coal,  etc.,  about  1,000,000  are  employed. 

In  the  manufacturing  and  mechanical 
industries  about  10,500,000  persons  are 
employed,  of  whom  nearly  2,000,000  are 
women. 

In     transportation      (railroads,     etc.) 
about  2,500,000  are  employed,  of  whom  a 
little  over  100,000  are  women. 
[  71  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

In  the  various  trades,  such  as  bankers, 
clerks  in  stores,  commercial  travelers,  etc., 
there  are  nearly  4,000,000  persons,  of 
whom  about  500,000  are  women. 

There  are  about  115,000  lawyers. 

Ministers,  118,000. 

Doctors  and  physicians,  150,000. 

Teachers,  600,000. 

Of  the  1,600,000  engaged  in  various  pro- 
fessional services  nearly  half  are  women. 

There  are  engaged  in  public  service 
nearly  500,000. 

In  domestic  and  personal  service  nearly 
4,000,000,  of  whom  two-thirds  are  women 
and  about  one-third  men. 

In  other  clerical  occupations  there  are 
nearly  2,000,000  persons. 


[  72  ] 


VALUE  OF  PROPERTY  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES. 

Under  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
various  corporations  doing  business  in  the 
United  States  are  required  to  make  annual 
reports  to  the  Federal  Government  and  to 
pay  a  corporation  tax.  The  annual  report 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue 
for  the  year  1913  shows  the  capital  stock 
of  the  corporations  in  the  United  States 
amounts  to  nearly  $62,000,000,000,  and  the 
bonds,  etc.,  of  these  corporations  amount 
to  nearly  $35,000,000,000,  the  total  capital- 
ization of  these  corporations  being  nearly 
$97,000,000,000. 

The  United  States  census  for  1910 
places  the  total  value  of  farm  property  in 
the  United  States  at  about  $41,000,000,000. 
The  bonds,  etc.,  of  the  Federal,  State  and 
local  governments  in  the  United  States 
upon  which  interest  is  paid  amounts  to 
nearly  $5,000,000,000. 

[  73  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

The  value  of  other  property  in  the 
United  States,  such  as  city  and  town  real 
estate  and  business  conducted  by  individ- 
uals and  partners,  etc.,  may  be  roughly  es- 
timated at  $50,000,000,000,  which  makes  a 
total  of  nearly  two  hundred  billion  dollars, 
about  one-half  of  which  represents  the 
value  of  corporation  property. 

The  owners  of  all  this  property  receive 
income  each  year  from  their  property, 
which  totals  about  six  billion  dollars,  and 
if  this  income  should  be  divided  equally 
between  the  100,000,000  people  who  live 
in  the  United  States  each  person  would 
have  an  income  of  about  $60.00  a  year,  but 
this  sum  of  course  would  not  be  nearly 
enough  to  support  persons  in  civilized  life. 

What  would  happen  if  we  all  lived  on 
income  from  property  without  working? 
Civilization  would  soon  end.  The  wood 
in  the  homes  and  buildings  would  soon 
decay  and  crumble.  The  plows  and  the 
machinery  on  the  farms  would  soon  be  de- 
stroyed with  rust.  The  engines  and  rails 
on  our  arteries  of  commerce  would  cor- 
rode and  fall  to  pieces.  Nature  does  not 
[  74  ] 


VALUE  OF  PROPERTY  IN  U.  S. 

permit  persons  or  things  to  be  long  idle 
and  continue  to  live  or  be  useful.  Most 
men  work  from  necessity. 

We  must  all  work  while  we  have 
strength  in  this  every  day  world  of  ours 
in  order  to  live  and  advance,  and  provide 
for  our  declining  years,  and  for  the  de- 
pendent ones. 

A  young  man  when  he  first  starts  in  his 
business  career  generally  enters  the  em- 
ploy of  an  established  business  at  a  very 
low  wage  or  salary  because  he  knows  little 
if  anything  about  the  business,  and  there- 
fore his  services  are  of  but  little  value  to 
his  employer.  His  advancement  to  greater 
earning  power  depends  upon  himself, 
whether  he  continues  as  an  employee,  or 
starts  a  business  of  his  own. 

The  wages  and  salaries  which  are  paid 
annually  to  the  great  army  of  workrs  in 
our  country  amounts  to  many  billion  dol- 
lars, perhaps  more  than  fifteen  billion  dol- 
lars. These  wages  and  salaries  vary  in 
amounts  from  a  few  dollars  to  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars  or  more  a  year,  depend- 
[  75  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

ent  upon  the  ability  and  efficiency  of  the 
individual  worker. 

Many  corporations  are  encouraging  and 
helping  their  employees  to  save  and  invest 
part  of  their  salaries  each  year  in  the  cap- 
ital stock  of  the  companies  for  which  they 
work,  and  thus  they  become  stockholders 
and  part  owners  in  the  property  as  well  as 
wage  earners,  and  thus  the  wage  earner 
is  transformed  into  the  small  capitalist, 
who  in  his  declining  years  is  able  to  live 
in  comfort  to  which  he  is  justly  entitled, 
by  reason  of  his  long  years  of  toil  and 
economy. 

It  is  said  that  two  billion  dollars  are 
spent  annually  in  the  United  States  for  in- 
toxicating liquors.  There  would  be  many 
more  small  capitalists  living  in  comfort  in 
their  old  age  if  it  were  not  for  such  unnec- 
essary— yes,  unnecessary  and  harmful  ex- 
penditures. 

Some  persons  accumulate  great  for- 
tunes and  have  enormous  incomes,  but 
generally  speaking  such  accumulations  are 
beneficial  to  mankind,  because  such  sur- 
plus wealth  is  used  by  the  owners  for 
[  76  ] 


VALUE  OF  PROPERTY  IN  U.  S. 

building  up  educational  and  charitable  in- 
stitutions and  helping  persons  who  require 
help. 


[  77  ] 


OUR  COUNTRY  AND  GOVERN- 
MENT. 

It  is  a  little  more  than  three  thousand 
miles  across  our  land  from  New  York  on 
the  East  to  San  Francisco  on  the  West, 
and  fifteen  hundred  miles  from  Duluth  at 
the  North  to  New  Orleans  in  the  South. 
Within  our  boundaries  are  all  the  climates, 
and  more  than  three  and  a  half  million 
square  miles  or  upwards  of  two  billion 
acres  of  land,  which  abound  in  mineral  and 
timber  resources  and  the  richest  agricul- 
tural soil  in  the  world. 

Upon  this  land  of  ours  are  more  than 
twenty  million  homes,  a  third  of  which  are 
on  farms  and  the  remainder  in  cities  and 
villages,  and  here  dwell  a  hundred  million 
persons,  one-seventeenth  of  the  population 
of  the  earth. 

Three  centuries  ago  it  was  the  home  of 
a  few  wandering  tribes  of  Indians,  but 
since  that  time  the  people  of  the  older  civ- 
[  78  ] 


OUR  COUNTRY  AND  GOVERNMENT 

ilized  countries  who  were  dissatisfied  with 
their  conditions,  or  their  forms  of  govern- 
ment, have  been  moving  to  our  shores, 
sometimes  at  the  rate  of  over  a  million  a 
year,  here  they  have  found  ample  oppor- 
tunities to  work  out  their  destinies;  the 
children  of  the  different  races  have  inter- 
married and  out  of  this  melting  pot  a  new 
American  race  is  sprung  which  has 
created  its  own  form  of  government,  and 
is  now  a  leader  in  the  progress  of  the 
world. 

During  the  first  century  and  a  half  the 
American  Colonies  had  their  own  local  as- 
semblies which  made  many  of  their  laws 
and  provided  the  necessary  revenues  to  de- 
fray the  expenses  of  their  governments, 
the  parliament  of  Great  Britain  had 
not  attempted  to  derive  revenue  from 
the  American  Colonies,  although  various 
acts  had  from  time  to  time  been  passed 
regulating  the  trade  and  commerce  of  the 
colonies,  yet  none  of  these  were  designed 
or  regarded,  either  in  Britain  or  America, 
as  revenue  laws. 

But  soon  after  France  ceded  certain  of 
[  79  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

her  possessions  in  America  to  Great 
Britain  in  1763  the  British  cabinet  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  taxing  the  American 
Colonies  in  order  to  help  pay  England's 
immense  war  debt,  and  so  Parliament 
passed  the  "Stamp  Act,"  which  immedi- 
ately met  with  great  opposition  in  Amer- 
ica and  was  the  first  great  cause  which  led 
to  the  American  Revolution.  An  early 
historian  says: 

"The  discontent  soon  spread  through- 
out the  colonies  and  the  opposition  became 
general  and  determined,  the  spirit  of  the 
people  gave  a  tone  to  the  colonial  assem- 
blies, and  bold  and  decided  resolutions 
were  adopted  against  the  iniquitous 
scheme  of  parliamentary  taxation.  Vir- 
ginia took  the  lead,  and  on  the  28th  of 
May,  1765,  Patrick  Henry  introduced  his 
celebrated  resolutions  into  the  House  of 
Burgesses,  which  declared  that  the  inhab- 
itants of  that  colony  were  entitled  to,  and 
had  possessed  and  enjoyed  all  the  rights, 
liberties  and  privileges  of  the  people  of 
Great  Britain;  that  the  general  assembly 
of  the  colony  had  always  exercised,  and 
[  80  ] 


OUR  COUNTRY  AND  GOVERNMENT 

alone  possessed  the  power  to  levy  taxes 
and  imposts  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  col- 
ony, and  that  they  were  not  bound  to  yield 
obedience  to  any  law  or  ordinance  whatso- 
ever, designed  to  impose  any  taxation 
whatever  upon  them,  other  than  the  law 
and  ordinances  of  the  general  assembly. 
So  bold  and  unexpected  were  these  resolu- 
tions, that  whilst  they  were  reading  one  of 
the  members  cried  out  'treason.' 

"These  resolutions  were  communicated 
to  all  the  colonies,  and  the  spirit  they 
breathed  spread  from  one  legislature  to 
another,  and  their  sentiments  were  reiter- 
ated in  resolutions  adopted  by  the  legisla- 
tures, and  the  freemen  in  public  meetings." 

Although  the  "Stamp  Act"  was  repealed 
by  parliament,  other  similar  laws  were  en- 
acted which  were  oppressive,  mean  and 
tyrannical  and  so  exasperated  the  people 
throughout  the  colonies  that  they  rose  in 
arms  and  demanded  that  the  yoke  of  for- 
eign rule  be  removed  from  them. 

Many  of  the  leading  citizens  of  the 
United  Colonies  met  in  Congress  July  4, 
1776,  and  prepared  the  Declaration  of  In- 
[  81  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

dependence.  This  famous  document  was 
called  "The  unanimous  Declaration  of  the 
thirteen  United  States  of  America."  In 
it  they  set  forth  many  of  the  wrongs  which 
had  been  inflicted  upon  them  by  the  King 
of  Great  Britain  and  their  reasons  for  es- 
tablishing a  free  and  independent  govern- 
ment. Among  those  who  signed  this  great 
instrument  are  the  names  of  John  Adams, 
Oliver  Wolcott  and  George  Ross. 

Few  wars  are  justified,  but  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  of  1775  was  founded  on 
justice.  Great  hardships  were  endured, 
and  many  brave  lives  were  sacrificed  for 
freedom. 

Among  the  leaders  at  the  opening  of  the 
Revolution  was  William  Dawes,  who  rode 
with  Paul  Revere  on  his  famous  "midnight 
ride"  to  arouse  the  minute  men  of  Massa- 
chusetts to  prepare  for  the  attack  of  the 
British  at  Lexington  and  Concord. 

Colonel  Knowlton  was  also  a  leader  in 
those  tempestuous  times,  he  fought  in  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill  and  afterwards  be- 
came one  of  General  Washington's  aids, 
and  when  Washington  wanted  to  obtain 
[  82  ] 


OUR  COUNTRY  AND  GOVERNMENT 

certain  information  concerning  the  situa- 
tion, strength,  and  future  movements  of 
the  British  Army  which  was  then  in  com- 
plete possession  of  Long  Island,  he  applied 
to  Colonel  Knowlton,  who  at  once  laid 
General  Washington's  request  before  his 
regiment,  to  which  belonged  Capt.  Nathan 
Hale,  who,  a  short  time  before  had  grad- 
uated at  Yale.  One  of  the  early  historians 
says  of  him: 

"This  young  officer,  animated  by  a  sense 
of  duty,  and  considering  that  an  oppor- 
tunity presented  itself  by  which  he  might 
be  useful  to  his  country,  at  once  offered 
himself  as  a  volunteer  for  this  hazardous 
service.  He  passed  in  disguise  to  Long 
Island,  examined  every  part  of  the  British 
Army  and  obtained  every  possible  infor- 
mation respecting  their  situation  and  fu- 
ture operations. 

"In  his  attempt  to  return  he  was  appre- 
hended, carried  before  Sir  William  Howe, 
and  the  proof  of  his  object  was  so  clear, 
that  he  frankly  acknowledged  who  he  was, 
and  what  were  his  views.  The  following 
morning  he  was  executed,  in  a  most  un- 
[  83  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

feeling  manner.  A  clergyman,  whose  at- 
tendance he  desired,  was  refused  him,  and 
a  Bible  for  a  few  minutes'  devotion  was  not 
procured,  although  he  earnestly  requested 
it.  The  letters  which  he  wrote  to  his 
friends  on  the  morning  of  his  execution 
were  destroyed,  and  this  extraordinary 
reason  given  by  the  provost  marshal,  that 
the  rebels  should  not  know,  that  they  had 
a  man  in  their  army  who  could  die  with  so 
much  firmness. 

"Unknown  to  all  around  him,  without  a 
single  friend  to  offer  him  the  last  consola- 
tion, thus  fell  as  amiable,  and  as  worthy  a 
young  man  as  America  could  boast,  with 
this  dying  observation,  'that  he  only  la- 
mented that  he  had  but  one  life  to  lose  for 
his  country.' " 

Col.  Knowlton  was  killed  not  long  after- 
wards in  the  battle  of  Harlem  Heights. 

At  the  end  of  the  revolution,  the  victory 
of  the  Americans  was  acknowledged  and 
the  foreign  troops  were  withdrawn  from 
our  shores,  the  leaders  of  our  colonies  were 
then  face  to  face  with  the  great  problem  of 
the  form  of  government  they  should  adopt. 
[  84  ] 


OUR  COUNTRY  AND  GOVERNMENT 

The  intelligent  citizens  of  the  different 
colonies  believed  it  was  necessary  for 
them  to  form  a  union  and  to  have  a  na- 
tional government  through  which  taxes 
could  be  levied,  not  only  to  pay  the  revolu- 
tionary war  debts,  but  to  protect  them- 
selves against  invasion  by  foreign  powers. 

The  leaders  of  the  colonies  having  first 
established  their  separate  respective  State 
governments  met  in  convention  and  at- 
tempted to  form  a  union  by  adopting  the 
Articles  of  Confederation;  the  people  soon 
found  that  this  did  not  fulfill  its  intended 
objects,  and  they  met  again  in  convention, 
where  it  was  proposed  to  establish  a  new 
common  government  which  should  have 
certain  definite  powers,  which  would  affect 
the  property  of  the  people  of  all  of  the 
states  and  should  be  founded  upon  the 
general  model  of  their  State  constitutions. 

The  second  Colonial  Congress  in  Jan- 
uary, 1787,  adopted  the  following  resolu- 
tion: "That  it  is  expedient  that  on  the 
second  Monday  in  May,  next,  a  convention 
of  delegates,  who  shall  have  been  ap- 
pointed by  the  several  States,  be  held  at 
[  85  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

Philadelphia,  for  the  sole  and  express  pur- 
pose of  revising  the  Articles  of  Confedera- 
tion and  reporting  to  congress  and  the  sev- 
eral legislatures  such  alterations  and  pro- 
visions therein,  as  shall  when  agreed  to  in 
Congress  and  confirmed  by  the  States, 
render  the  Federal  Constitution  adequate 
to  the  exigencies  of  government  and  the 
preservation  of  the  Union." 

The  various  States  sent  their  ablest  citi- 
zens as  delegates  to  the  convention,  among 
them  were  Washington,  Madison,  Frank- 
lin, Hamilton,  Roger  Sherman,  Oliver 
Ellsworth,  Rutledge,  Morris,  Livingston, 
Paterson,  Strong,  Geary,  Martin,  Davie 
and  Pinckney,  most  of  whom  had  gradu- 
ated from  Princeton,  Harvard  or  Yale,  had 
studied  law  and  had  served  their  country 
in  various  governmental  capacities.  They 
were  men  who  for  years  had  carefully 
studied  governmental  questions  and  when 
they  met  in  that  convention  and  prepared 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  the  greatest  document  of  its  kind 
the  world  has  ever  known,  it  was  not  the 
result  of  accident,  but  the  work  of  com- 
bined ability. 

[  86  ] 


OUR  COUNTRY  AND  GOVERNMENT 

This  constitution  upon  its  completion 
was  submitted  as  a  proposal  to  the  people 
of  the  various  States  and  was  by  them  ac- 
cepted, adopted,  ratified  and  confirmed, 
and  then  became  the  fundamental  law  of 
the  land. 

Our  national  government  may  be 
likened  unto  a  great  corporation  with  mil- 
lions of  stockholders  who  elect  their  Presi- 
dent and  officers  who  direct  the  affairs  of 
the  company. 

When  you  arrive  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  years  you  will  possess  the  right  of  suf- 
frage, that  is  the  right  to  vote.  This  is  a 
wonderful  privilege,  it  is  the  right  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  affairs  of  the  government  of 
yourself  and  of  all  the  millions  of  persons 
in  our  country.  It  is  a  right  which  your 
forefathers  fought  and  died  to  obtain,  a 
right  which  you  must  learn  to  appreciate 
and  properly  use. 

You  are  a  part  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  how  large  a  part  depends 
upon  yourself,  if  you  are  indifferent  to  gov- 
ernmental affairs  you  will  be  a  very  small 
part,  but  if  you  learn  thoroughly  the  prin- 
[  87  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

ciples  of  our  government  and  take  an  act- 
ive interest  therein  you  may  some  day  be 
called  by  your  fellow  citizens  to  render  a 
great  service  in  the  administration  of  gov- 
ernment. 

The  principles  of  government  which  our 
forefathers  established  are  not  difficult  to 
understand.  Prior  to  the  revolution  they 
had  lived  under  the  rule  of  the  King  of 
England,  they  did  not  approve  of  a  mon- 
archial  form  of  government.  They  be- 
lieved it  was  not  wise  to  have  one  man 
rule  over  them  during  his  lifetime  or  to 
be  ruled  over  by  one  of  his  descend- 
ants after  his  death  for  the  reason, 
among  others,  that  in  such  a  form  of  gov- 
ernment too  great  power  is  placed  in 
one  man,  and  while  he  might  be  very 
efficient,  such  a  ruler  is  required  to  decide 
so  many  great  and  important  questions, 
that  almost  necessarily  he  becomes  very 
arbitrary.  The  King  has  back  of  him  the 
army,  which  is  at  his  beck  and  call,  to  en- 
force his  orders  or  whims,  and  by  reason 
thereof  his  country  may  be  thrown  into 
unjustifiable  wars. 

[88  ] 


OUR  COUNTRY  AND  GOVERNMENT 

Our  forefathers  devised  a  form  of  gov- 
ernment which  is  strong,  and  yet  safe- 
guarded from  tyranny.  They  sought  a 
government  of  law,  not  of  men. 

Let  us  consider  briefly  the  Constitution 
they  adopted. 


[  89  ] 


WHAT  IS  A  CONSTITUTION? 

It  is  a  written  instrument  which,  pre- 
scribes the  powers  and  limitations,  sepa- 
rates the  functions  and  defines  the  author- 
ity of  the  government.  It  cannot  be 
changed  except  in  the  manner  stated  in 
the  constitution  itself,  it  is  the  source  from 
which  is  derived  the  authority  to  enact, 
construe,  administer  and  enforce  laws. 

In  other  words,  our  constitution  con- 
tains the  fundamental  principles  for  the 
government  of  our  people.  It  divides  the 
services  to  be  rendered  into  three  great 
branches:  (1)  the  legislative  branch  which 
enacts  the  laws,  (2)  the  executive  branch 
which  administers  the  laws,  and  (3)  the 
judicial  branch  which  construes  and  en- 
forces the  laws. 

The  first  paragraph  of  our  constitution 
is  as  follows: 

"We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in 
order  to  form  a  more  perfect  union,  estab- 
[  90  ] 


WHAT  IS  A  CONSTITUTION? 

lish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquility, 
provide  for  the  common  defense,  promote 
the  general  well-fare  and  secure  the  bless- 
ings of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  pos- 
terity, do  ordain  and  establish  this  con- 
stitution for  the  United  States  of  Amer- 


ica." 


During  the  first  seventy-five  years  of  our 
national  existence  two  constructions  were 
placed  upon  the  words  "We,  the  people 
of  the  United  States,"  the  States  rights 
men  contended  that  this  language  meant 
the  people  of  each  State,  and  that  if  the 
people  of  a  State  wanted  to  secede  from 
the  Union  they  had  the  right  to  do  so; 
the  other  contention  was  that  the  language 
meant  the  people  of  the  United  States  as 
distinguished  from  the  people  of  each  sep- 
arate State;  the  question  was  decided  sev- 
eral times  by  the  Federal  Courts  and  final- 
ly by  the  war  of  the  Rebellion  which  held 
the  Union  together. 

"To  establish  justice,"  means  the  con- 
struction and  enforcement  of  laws. 

"To  insure  domestic  tranquility,"  means 
a  national  guarantee  of  good  will  of  each 
[  91  1 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

State  toward  every  other  State,  and  that 
the  Union  should  secure  to  all  the  people 
in  the  nation  equal  rights  and  liberties. 

"To  provide  for  the  common  defense," 
means  the  power  of  raising  armies  and 
equipping  a  navy  to  protect  the  nation 
from  either  foreign  or  domestic  enemies. 

"To  promote  the  general  welfare," 
means  not  sectional  nor  State  welfare,  but 
the  general  welfare  of  the  people  of  the 
country. 


[  92  ] 


LEGISLATIVE  POWER- 
CONGRESS. 

The  Constitution  provides  that  all  leg- 
islative powers  shall  be  vested  in  a  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  which  shall  con- 
sist of  a  Senate  and  House  of  Represen- 
tatives. The  members  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  are  chosen  every  second 
year  by  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
these  members  choose  their  Speaker  or 
presiding  officer  and  other  officers. 

The  Senate  of  the  United  States  is  com- 
posed of  two  senators  from  each  state 
chosen  by  the  people  thereof  for  six  years. 
Each  senator  has  one  vote. 

The  Vice  President  of  the  United  States 
is  the  President  of  the  Senate. 

Briefly  stated  the  powers  of  Congress 
are: 

To  lay  and  collect  taxes  and  duties,  to 
pay  the  debts  and  provide  for  the  common 
defense  and  general  welfare  of  the  United 
States.  93 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

To  borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the 
United  States. 

To  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  na- 
tions and  among  the  several  states. 

To  establish  a  uniform  rule  of  natural- 
ization and  uniform  laws  on  the  subject 
of  bankruptcies. 

To  coin  money  and  regulate  its  value, 
and  to  fix  the  standard  of  weights  and 
measures. 

To  punish  counterfeiting. 

To  establish  post  offices  and  post  roads. 

To  issue  patents  and  copyrights. 

To  create  tribunals  inferior  to  the  Su- 
preme Court. 

To  define  and  punish  piracies  and  fel- 
onies committed  on  the  high  seas. 

To  declare  war. 

To  raise  and  support  armies. 

To  provide  and  maintain  a  navy. 

To  make  rules  for  the  government  and 
regulation  of  the  land  and  naval  forces. 

To  provide  for  the  calling  forth  of  the 
militia  to  execute  the  laws  of  the  Union, 
suppress  insurrection  and  repel  invasions. 

To  provide  for  arming  the  militia,  etc. 
[  94  ] 


LEGISLATIVE  POWER— CONGRESS 

To  exercise  exclusive  legislation  over 
the  seat  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States  (now  the  District  of  Columbia), 
also  over  the  forts  and  other  needful 
buildings. 

To  make  laws  necessary  and  proper  for 
carrying  into  execution  the  foregoing 
powers  and  all  other  powers  vested  by  the 
constitution  in  the  government  of  the 
United  States. 

Congress  also  has  control  over  emigra- 
tion. 

The  Vice  President  of  the  United  States 
and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives each  recive  an  annual  salary  of 
$12,000  and  the  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives in  Congress  are  paid  at  the  rate  of 
$7,500  per  annum  each. 


THE  EXECUTIVE  POWER- 
PRESIDENT. 

The  executive  power  is  vested  in  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  who  with 
the  Vice  President  is  chosen  by  the  people 
for  four  years.  The  President  is  com- 
mander in  chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of 
the  United  States.  He  has  the  power  by 
and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  sen- 
ate to  make  treaties,  to  nominate  and  ap- 
point ambassadors,  and  other  public  min- 
isters, judges  of  the  Supreme  and  Federal 
Courts,  and  various  other  officers;  also  to 
grant  pardons  and  to  perform  the  many 
other  duties  of  the  chief  executive  of  a  re- 
public. The  executive  power  is  large  be- 
cause it  is  not  defined  by  the  constitution. 

The  constitution  provides  "The  Presi- 
dent may  require  the  opinion,  in  writing, 
of  the  principal  officer  in  each  of  the  ex- 
ecutive departments  upon  any  subject  re- 
lating to  the  duties  of  their  respective  of- 
fices." 96 


EXECUTIVE  POWER— PRES. 

The  term  "principal  officer"  means  the 
head  of  the  department. 

The  constitution  does  not  provide  for  a 
President's  Cabinet,  but  nevertheless  the 
President  now  appoints  the  members  of 
his  cabinet  who  are  the  heads  of  the  ex- 
ecutive departments  as  follows: 

Secretary  of  State, 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 

Secretary  of  War, 

Secretary  of  the  Navy, 

Secretary  of  the  Interior, 

Postmaster  General, 

Attorney  General, 

Secretary  of  Agriculture, 

Secretary  of  Commerce, 

Secretary  of  Labor. 

While  the  men  appointed  by  the  Presi- 
dent to  fill  these  great  positions  have  many 
important  duties  to  perform  as  heads  of 
their  department  of  the  government,  and 
generally  meet  with  the  President  at  cab- 
inet meetings  held  each  week,  where  many 
important  questions  of  State  are  consid- 
ered and  freely  discussed,  nevertheless  the 
executive  power  of  the  President  is  so 
[  97  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

great  that  he  is  not  required  to  consult  his 
principal  executive  officers  in  matters  per- 
taining to  national  affairs,  but  he  may  act 
independently  of  them,  as  Lincoln  did 
when  he  decided  on  his  emancipation  proc- 
lamation. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  re- 
ceives a  salary  of  $75,000.00  a  year,  and  the 
use  of  the  White  House.  His  salary  is 
large,  but  is  small  compared  to  the 
annual  receipts  of  European  sovereigns: 
the  Czar  of  Russia  receives  more  than  $8,- 
000,000  a  year,  the  German  Kaiser  $5,000,- 
000  a  year,  the  King  of  England  $2,350,- 
000  a  year,  the  King  of  Italy  $3,000,000  a 
year,  Turkey  pays  $4,500,000  a  year,  Spain 
pays  her  King  $1,400,000  a  year,  and  even 
little  Belgium  paid  her  King  $710,000  a 
year. 

The  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United 
States  receives  a  salary  of  $12,000.00  a 
year,  this  salary  is  also  paid  to  the  heads 
of  the  executive  departments  of  our  gov- 
ernment who  are  members  of  the  Presi- 
dent's cabinet. 

In  our  diplomatic  service,  our  ambas- 
[  98  ] 


EXECUTIVE  POWER— PRES. 

sadors  to  Great  Britain,  Germany,  France, 
Italy,  Austria-Hungary,  Japan,  Mexico, 
Argentine  Republic,  Brazil,  Chile,  Russia, 
Spain,  and  Turkey,  each  receive  salaries  of 
$17,500  a  year.  Our  representatives  in 
other  countries  receive  smaller  salaries. 


JUDICIARY. 

The  judiciary  power  is  vested  in  one 
Supreme  Court  and  in  such  inferior  courts 
as  Congress  may  from  time  to  time  create ; 
the  Judges  hold  their  offices  during  good 
behavior,  and  have  jurisdiction  over  all 
cases  arising  under  the  constitution  and 
laws  of  the  United  States,  and  all  cases  af- 
fecting ambassadors  and  other  public  min- 
isters, admiralty  cases,  controversies  in 
which  the  United  States  is  a  party,  con- 
troversies between  two  or  more  States,  be- 
tween a  State  and  citizens  of  another 
State,  and  betwen  citizens  of  different 
States,  etc. 

There  are  nine  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  one  of  whom 
is  Chief  Justice.  These  Judges  each  re- 
ceive an  annual  salary  of  $14,500.00,  except 
the  Chief  Justice  who  receives  $15,000.00. 

There  are  nine  Circuit  Courts  of  Appeal, 
each  of  which  is  composed  of  three  United 
[  100  ] 


JUDICIARY" 

States  Circuit  Judges.  Each  State  in  the 
Union  is  included  in  one  of  these  circuits 
which  are  apportioned  according  to  popu- 
lation and  geographical  location.  The 
Circuit  Court  judges  each  receive  a  salary 
of  $7,000  a  year. 

There  are  about  one  hundred  District 
Court  Judges  of  the  United  States.  The 
Districts  are  apportioned  throughout  the 
United  States  according  to  population  and 
geographical  location  and  convenience. 
Each  District  Court  Judge  is  paid  $6,000 
a  year. 

The  Federal  judges  who  have  served  ten 
years  may  retire  at  the  age  of  70  years  on 
full  pay  during  the  remainder  of  their  nat- 
ural life. 

All  of  the  federal  court  judges  are  re- 
quired to  perform  very  important  services, 
and  our  government  ought  to  pay  them 
larger  salaries.  The  Judges  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  New  York  are  paid  $17,500 
each  per  annum. 


[  101  ] 


OTHER  PROVISIONS. 

The  constitution  provides  also  that  full 
faith  and  credit  shall  be  given  to  the  public 
acts,  records  and  judicial  proceedings  of 
every  other  State,  and  that  Congress  shall 
enact  the  necessary  laws  pertaining  there- 
to; also  that  Congress  shall  have  jurisdic- 
tion over  the  territory  and  other  property 
of  the  United  States  and  the  admission  of 
new  States  into  the  Union. 

Since  the  adoption  of  the  constitution 
there  have  been  seventeen  amendments  to 
the  constitution,  one  of  which  abolished 
slavery  in  the  United  States,  another 
amendment  permits  a  federal  income  tax, 
and  another  amendment  provides  for  the 
election  of  senators  by  the  direct  vote  of 
the  people  instead  of  by  the  various  State 
legislatures. 

Our  Supreme  Court  in  speaking  of  the 
powers  of  the  National  Government  has 
said,  "The  entire  strength  of  the  nation 
[  102  ] 


OTHER  PROVISIONS 

may  be  used  to  enforce  in  any  part  of  the 
land  the  full  and  free  exercise  of  all  nation- 
al powers  and  the  security  of  all  rights  en- 
trusted by  the  constitution  to  its  care.  The 
strong  arm  of  the  national  government 
may  be  put  forth  to  brush  away  all  ob- 
struction. If  the  emergency  arises  the 
army  of  the  nation  and  all  its  militia  are 
at  the  service  of  the  nation  to  compel  obe- 
dience to  its  laws." 

Under  the  dual  system  which  prevails 
with  us  the  powers  of  government  are  dis- 
tributed between  the  Nation  and  the 
States.  One  of  the  amendments  to  the  con- 
stitution provides  that  the  powers  not 
given  to  the  United  States  by  the  consti- 
tution, nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States, 
are  reserved  to  the  States  respectively,  or 
to  the  people. 

We  have  briefly  considered  some  of  the 
principal  powers  of  our  National  Govern- 
ment, let  us  now  consider  some  of  the 
powers  of  our  State  Governments. 


[  103  ] 


STATE  GOVERNMENT. 

A  constitution  of  a  state  generally  de- 
fines the  boundaries  of  the  State,  sets  forth 
a  bill  of  rights,  divides  the  powers  of  the 
government  into  three  departments:  (1) 
the  Legislative  Department,  which  con- 
sists of  a  house  of  representatives  and  sen- 
ate where  the  laws  are  enacted;  (2)  the 
Executive  Department,  which  consists  of 
the  governor,  secretary  of  state,  auditor, 
treasurer,  superintendent  of  public  instruc- 
tion, etc.,  and  attorney  general,  who  must 
take  care  that  the  laws  of  the  State  are 
faithfully  executed;  and  (3)  the  Judicial 
Department,  which  consists  of  the  various 
courts  and  judges  who  construe  the  laws 
and  decide  the  litigations.  The  State  Con- 
stitution also  contains  general  provisions 
regarding  counties  and  cities,  suffrage, 
education,  revenue,  militia,  corporations, 
banks,  railroads,  statutes,  etc. 
We  further  find  that  each  state  is  divided 
[  104  ] 


STATE  GOVERNMENT 

into  Counties,  and  each  county  has  its  of- 
ficers who  are  elected  by  the  voters  of  the 
county  to  supervise  the  county  roads, 
buildings,  etc.,  and  the  financial  affairs  of 
the  county. 

Then  we  have  the  last  division  of  gov- 
ernmental powers,  that  is,  the  government 
of  Cities,  Villages  and  Townships.  Each 
City  has  its  Mayor  and  Board  of  Alder- 
men, Treasurer,  etc.,  who  are  elected  to  of- 
fice by  the  persons  having  the  right  to  vote 
for  such  officers. 

The  Governor  of  Illinois  receives  a  sal- 
ary of  $12,000  a  year,  the  treasurer  of  the 
State  is  paid  $10,000  a  year,  and  the  same 
sum  is  paid  to  the  attorney  general  of  the 
State.  The  Judges  of  the  supreme  court 
of  the  State  are  each  paid  $10,000  a  year. 

The  salary  of  the  judges  of  the  circuit 
and  superior  courts  of  Cook  County  is  $12,- 
000  a  year  each.  The  Mayor  of  Chicago 
is  paid  $18,000  a  year,  and  the  judges  of 
the  Municipal  Court  receive  $6,000  yearly 
salary. 

The  expenses  of  the  National  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  amount  to  over 
[  105  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

$1,000,000,000  a  year;  the  expenses  of  the 
governments  of  our  forty-eight  different 
states  amounts  to  many  hundred  millions 
of  dollars  each  year;  the  government  ex- 
penses of  Cook  County  amounts  to  $25,- 
000,000  a  year  and  of  Chicago  to  $25,000,- 
000  a  year.  I  mention  these  facts  and  fig- 
ures to  show  you  what  an  important  busi- 
ness that  of  government  is,  in  the  hope 
that  you  may  be  encouraged  to  take  an 
active  part  therein. 

It  requires  considerable  time  and  study 
to  become  familiar  with  the  governmental 
affairs  of  the  City,  County,  State  and  Na- 
tion in  which  we  live,  but  all  citizens 
should  devote  sufficient  of  their  time  and 
thought  to  these  matters,  so  that  they  will 
be  able  to  perform  their  political  duties  in- 
telligently, for  if  a  sufficient  number  of 
our  citizens  fail  in  this  respect,  our  form 
of  government  will  become  a.  failure  and 
anarchy  or  despotism  will  prevail. 

New  problems  arise,  and  will  ever  con- 
tinue to  arise,  for  each  generation  to  solve, 
and  if  you  would  know  how  to  solve  the 
new  problems,  which  some  one  in  your 
[  106  ] 


STATE  GOVERNMENT 

day  and  generation  must  solve,  you  must 
first  learn  how  the  old  problems  were 
solved  by  former  generations,  for  many  of 
the  apparently  new  problems  are  but  the 
old  problems  in  different  forms.  If  you 
fit  yourself  to  properly  solve  these  prob- 
lems, you  will  be  a  leader  in  the  progress 
of  the  world. 


[  107  ] 


MEXICO. 

Since  the  adoption  of  our  Constitution 
in  1789  the  growth  of  our  country  both  in 
population  and  territory  has  been  mar- 
velous. At  that  time  the  territory  of  the 
United  States  was  bounded  on  the  west 
by  the  Mississippi  River,  and  the  popula- 
tion was  less  than  four  million  people.  The 
form  of  government  which  our  people  had 
adopted  was  an  experiment,  it  was  believed 
by  many  people  that  such  a  government 
would  not  long  continue,  but  it  was  soon 
proven  to  be  a  successful  form  of  govern- 
ment and  one  which  could  expand  to  meet 
the  requirements  of  a  growing  and  power- 
ful nation. 

In  1803  we  about  doubled  the  size  of  our 
territory  by  making  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase. We  paid  France  $15,000,000  for 
ceding  to  the  United  States  the  territory 
which  now  contains  Louisiana,  Arkansas, 
Missouri,  Iowa,  Minnesota,  North  and 
[  108  ] 


MEXICO 

South  Dakota,  Kansas,  Nebraska  and 
Oklahoma  and  part  of  Montana,  Wyoming 
and  Colorado  and  some  say  Washington 
and  Oregon. 

Then  in  1819  we  paid  Spain  $5,000,000 
for  Florida  and  added  a  territory  one 
thousand  miles  long  to  the  United  States. 

Our  form  of  government  continued  to 
be  successful  and  strong  and  sturdy  and 
seventeen  years  later  (in  1836)  Texas  se- 
ceded from  Mexico  and  not  long  after- 
wards sought  to  be  annexed  to  the  United 
States  which  was  accomplished  in  1845. 
Disputes  then  arose  between  Mexico  and 
the  United  States  and  war  was  declared 
and  at  the  close  of  that  war  Mexico  ceded 
to  the  United  States  for  $18,250,000  the 
territory  now  known  as  California,  Ari- 
zona, Utah,  Nevada,  New  Mexico,  and 
parts  of  Colorado  and  Wyoming. 

A  little  more  than  twenty  years  later  (in 
1867)  we  purchased  Alaska,  having  530,- 
000  square  miles,  from  Russia  for  $7,200,- 
000,  and  since  them  we  have  taken  an  ac- 
tive part  in  the  governmental  affairs  of  the 
Hawaiian  Islands,  Porto  Rico,  the  Philip- 
[  109  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

pines,  Cuba  and  the  Panama  Canal  Zone. 

Thousands  of  people  living  in  beautiful, 
rich  in  soil  and  minerals  —  but  crushed 
with  revolutions  —  Mexico,  the  territory 
which  joins  us  at  the  Southwest,  are  hop- 
ing and  praying  that  our  form  of  govern- 
ment may  some  day  be  extended  to  cover 
that  territory.  Will  history  repeat  itself 
and  will  part  of  Mexico  secede  as  did 
Texas  in  1836  and  later  become  a  part  of 
the  United  States? 

Our  Constitutional  Government  "of  the 
people,  for  the  people  and  by  the  people" 
is  successful  and  strong  and  satisfies  the 
governmental  requirements  of  more  than 
a  hundred  million  people.  Is  it  not  a  part 
of  our  destiny,  is  it  not  our  duty  to  lend  a 
helping  hand  to  the  people  of  stricken 
Mexico?  It  is  said  that  a  large  part  of  the 
fourteen  million  Mexicans  are  ignorant 
and  illiterate  and  have  many  barbarous 
customs,  and  if  that  is  true  (and  I  believe 
it  is  true  from  my  own  observations  in 
traveling  through  Mexico)  are  they  capa- 
ble of  self  government  without  help? 

It  is  related  that  a  baby  was  taken  from 
[  no  ] 


MEXICO 

barbarous  parents  and  reared  and  edu- 
cated by  a  civilized  family,  and  by  the  time 
she  was  twenty  years  old  she  was  as  capa- 
ble and  refined  as  the  children  of  civilized 
parentage  with  whom  she  had  been  reared. 

Here  is  another  illustration  nearer 
home.  Dr.  Montezuma  is  a  practicing  phy- 
sician in  Chicago.  He  was  born  an  Apache 
Indian,  of  a  tribe  which  wandered  near 
the  border  line  of  Mexico  and  when  he 
was  about  four  years  old  he  was  captured 
by  a  hostile  tribe  and  sold  to  a  Chicago 
man  for  $30.  He  was  brought  to  Chicago 
— educated  in  the  public  schools,  the  Uni- 
versity of  Illinois  and  after  that  in  the 
medical  department  of  Northwestern  Uni- 
versity. He  recently  made  a  speech  be- 
fore the  Chicago  Association  of  Commerce 
and  I  quote  the  following  therefrom: 

"When  we  consider  therefore  that  all 
persons,  Indians  not  excepted,  come  into 
the  world  a  mental  blank  and  attain  to 
whatever  intellectual  growth  they  may 
reach  only  as  the  result  of  surroundings 
and  influences  upon  the  faculties  with 
which  they  are  endowed,  it  is  easy  to 
[  Hi  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

understand  that  the  Indian's  mental  cal- 
ibre was  in  inverse  proportion  to  his  phy- 
sical development,  that  though  he  was  an 
adult  in  appearance,  he  was  mentally  a 
child.  In  civilized  life  it  is  the  rare  excep- 
tion to  see  such  a  disproportion  between 
the  physical  and  mental  development  of  an 
individual  as  to  excite  surprise. 

"In  Arizona,  the  month  of  October,  the 
weather  is  beautiful  and  in  my  Apache  pa- 
poosehood  I  thought  that  life  w.ould  con- 
tinue in  that  same  way.  I  was  satisfied  to 
sleep  on  the  ground,  run  around  the  rocks, 
hide  under  the  bushes,  roll  on  the  grass 
and  bask  in  the  sun  with  my  playmates  and 
follow  my  mother.  Not  unlike  children 
of  other  races,  I  did  not  entertain  the 
thought  that  there  were  any  other  races  of 
people  and  no  language  but  what  we 
spoke.  Neither  my  grandfather,  father  or 
mother,  nor  any  one  in  our  camp  had  ever 
met  a  pale  face,  so  you  see  I  was  born  and 
lived  in  the  most  primitive  surroundings 
in  the  history  of  America.  The  every  day 
common  articles  of  civilization  were  un- 
known to  the  Apaches — surely,  I  have 
[  112  ] 


MEXICO 

lived  another  life.  From  the  picturesque 
Iron  peak,  one  of  the  highest  in  the  Super- 
stition range  of  mountains,  I  could  see 
miles  and  miles  of  unknown  shadows  of 
far-away  objects  which  often  attracted  my 
attention  and  excited  my  curiosity  to  know 
what  it  all  meant. 

"Horrors!  I  remember,  I  remember 
the  last  day  and  the  last  place  I  was  with 
my  people.  I  was  only  four  years  old 
when,  from  this  peak  one  midnight,  I  was 
captured  with  a  dozen  or  more  of  my  play- 
mates by  the  Pima  Indians  and  hurried 
away.  About  thirty  women  were  killed. 
All  the  fighting  men  of  our  camp  were 
away  that  memorable  night.  The  next 
morning,  from  a  death  dream,  I  awoke;  I 
was  on  level  prairies  surrounded  by  hor- 
rible animals,  which  I  afterwards  learned 
were  horses,  and,  oh,  these  horrid  human 
beings,  my  tribal  enemies.  What  could  I 
do?  Nothing.  In  my  inward  agony  I 
called  'Mother.'  She  heard  it  not,  but  as 
I  grew  into  manhood  I  learned  that  she 
sacrificed  her  life  for  me.  She  was  found 
by  Apache  scouts,  dead  with  a  bullet 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

wound  in  her  body,  on  the  trail  that  led 
from  San  Carlos  reservation  to  Camp  Date 
Creek.  I  wanted  to  go  back  to  my  people. 
Not  so.  My  people  have  been  without  me 
for  these  many  years — God  bless  them. 

"After  two  days'  travel  in  a  southwest- 
erly course  along  the  foothills,  over  mesas 
and  through  cactus  fields  of  Salt  River 
Valley,  we  arrived  at  Chief  Blackwater's 
camp  in  what  is  known  now  as  the  Pima 
Village,  where  I  was  kept  as  a  little  pris- 
oner for  several  days  when  again  I  was 
tied  behind  a  rider  and  off  they  galloped 
with  me  to  see  if  they  could  get  rid  of  the 
boy  creature  which  they  thought  was  as 
poisonous  and  fatal  as  a  young  rattle- 
snake. 

"Towards  evening  three  Pimas  sold  me 
at  Adamsville  for  thirty  dollars  to  a  Mr. 
Gentile,  who  was  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  Chicago  Press  Club  and  the  Art  In- 
stitute. Mr.  Gentile  was  out  there  in  that 
wild  country  prospecting,  taking  land- 
scape pictures  and  collecting  curiosities. 

"Alone !  Worse  than  these  creatures,  I 
was  left  with  the  strange  half -pale  human 


MEXICO 

beings.  Their  faces  were  all  covered  over 
with  hair;  they  had  chalk-like  or  ghost-like 
skins.  They  had  legs  and  arms  like  mine. 
But,  oh,  what  were  they?  After  gazing 
steadily  all  around,  my  little  frightened 
mind  was  more  convinced.  I  decided  I 
was  in  another  world,  a  fairyland,  a  won- 
derland—oh my,  everything  was  so  won- 
derful! Surely  these  'cha  wahs'  (Apache 
word  for  'enemies')  are  gods?  Within  the 
four  walls  of  an  adobe  house  for  the  first 
time,  I  looked  all  around  with  amazement. 
I  said  to  myself:  'No  one  but  supernatural 
beings  could  have  these  wonderful  things.' 
"Adamsville  was  supplied  with  water 
by  one  well,  which  was  located  centrally 
and  on  the  main  street.  Early  the  next 
morning,  before  the  general  rush  to  the 
well,  Mr.  Gentile,  by  force,  led  me  to  the 
suspicious  looking  framework,  accom- 
panied by  his  three  assistants;  one  carried 
a  tub,  another  a  towel  and  a  strange  sub- 
stance they  called  'soap,'  while  the  third 
carried  clothes.  I  had  a  foreboding  feel- 
ing that  something  was  going  to  happen. 
My  eyes  were  open  and  I  was  not  unmind- 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

ful  of  my  dangerous  situation.  My  little 
mind  had  already  decided  that  these 
strange  people  were  gods  and  that  they 
would  say  to  me  'Die'  and  I  would  die,  or 
'You  turn  into  this  or  that  kind  of  an  an- 
imal' and  I  would  be  that  animal.  Nothing 
was  impossible  for  them  to  transform  me 
into.  All  they  had  to  do  was  to  say  it  and 
it  was  done. 

"There  unclad,  bewildered,  I  stood  trem- 
bling and  ready  to  cry  out  for  mercy,  in 
front  of  that  thing  which  they  caused  to 
whirl  rapidly  around  until  I  heard  some- 
thing splash,  and  then  one  of  them  turned 
and  turned  something,  and  then  up  came 
a  pailful  of  something  which  he  poured 
into  the  tub,  and  then  I  was  placed  in  it. 
'Oh,  my !  Is  this  death,  or  is  it  the  begin- 
ning of  a  torture?'  I  had  seen  water  on 
the  earth's  surface  and  to  fall  from  the 
clouds  in  the  sky,  but  what  is  this?  You 
can  imagine  my  feelings.  I  stood  there 
without  a  whimper  as  they  bathed  me.  I 
thought  every  movement  up  and  down  my 
body  had  a  mystical  meaning,  but,  quick  as 
a  flash,  I  made  up  my  mind  that  this  was 
[  116  ] 


MEXICO 

a  magic  fluid  by  which  I  was  to  be  changed 
from  what  I  was  to  a  pale  face  creature 
like  themselves.  Several  times  during  the 
process  I  looked  at  myself  carefully  to  see 
whether  I  was  bleached  or  was  completely 
like  them.  I  did  not  like  the  idea  of  being 
different  from  what  I  was,  and  if  I  were  to 
and  must  change  I  wanted  to  keep  the  hold 
as  long  as  possible.  I  wanted  to  know  and 
feel  that  exact  sensation  that  would  come 
just  at  the  moment  I  passed  the  dividing 
line  where  I  must  say  'good  bye'  to  my 
Indian  body. 

"This  was  my  first  initiation  into  civi- 
lization. That  transformation,  that  'In- 
dian of  tomorrow'  did  not  come  as  soon  as 
I  had  expected — in  a  twinkling  of  an  eye, 
nor  in  a  moment.  It  took  many,  many 
years  of  hard  knocks,  with  helping  hands 
of  many  good  friends  in  the  midst  of  civ- 
ilized surroundings. 

"Wherever  the  Indian  is  so  situated  that 
he  is  not  compelled  to  exert  himself  for 
sustenance,  he  is  being  injured  both  in 
body  and  in  morals.  Every  day  that  the 
Indian  or  any  other  creature  is  kept  under 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

guardianship  is  a  day  lost  to  him  that 
should  have  been  put  to  individual  effort. 
The  sooner  he  has  to  meet  the  storm  and 
tempest  of  life's  battle,  the  sooner  will  he 
develop  the  power  to  resist  its  forces  and 
to  keep  his  equilibrium. 

"The  Indian,  individually,  is  entitled  to 
the  privilege  of  urging  his  contest  for  ex- 
istence in  civilization  just  as  much  as 
other  men  are.  He  also  owes  it,  as  a  duty 
to  the  country,  as  well  as  to  himself,  to  get 
out  and  get  to  work  and  to  begin  to  grow 
like  other  men.  The  question  is  not  what 
he  can  be  taught  to  do,  and  what  he  can 
accomplish  under  certain  conditions,  but, 
rather  is  he  out  among  men?  Is  he  exist- 
ing under  natural  conditions  among  civ- 
ilized men  and  slipping  and  climbing  and 
getting  on,  surely  even  though  slowly? 
This  is  the  question  and  the  answer  should 
be  he  is.  There  is  no  reason  why  he  should 
be  housed  and  nursed  on  reservations. 

"The  Indians  must  become  their  own 
emancipators.  There  is  none  to  carry  the 
burden  for  them.  The  General  Pratts  are 
too  scarce  to  bring  sufficient  force  to  the 


MEXICO 

work.  The  fundamental  principle  em- 
braced in  the  theory  for  many  years  so 
earnestly  advocated  by  General  Pratt,  the 
founder  of  the  renowned  United  States 
Indian  Industrial  school  at  Carlisle,  Pa.,  is 
that  IN  A  CHANGE  OF  ENVIRON- 
MENT we  have  the  key  to  the  solution  of 
the  Indian  problem.  It  is  strange  to  be- 
hold how  persistent  the  nation  has  closed 
its  eyes  to  this  fact.  Everywhere  is  the 
truth  proclaimed  that  would  you  rise, 
would  you  grow,  would  you  advance, 
would  you  realize  the  possibilities  within 
your  grasp,  then  out  with  you,  Mongolian, 
out  with  you  African,  out  with  you  Cau- 
cassian;  out  with  you  Indian  into  the  great 
world,  where  everybody  meets  everybody, 
from  every  nation  and  country.  For  all 
the  earth,  land  and  sea,  is  man's  habita- 
tion. 

"He  alone  is  a  true  friend  of  the  Indian 
who  has  come  to  realize  that  the  reserva- 
tion or  any  substitute  therefor,  is  a  sad  and 
dreary  environment  with  which  to  sur- 
round a  human  being,  and  while  within  its 
bounds  no  man  can  hope  that  the  glorious 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

possibilities  which  are  the  heritage  of  free- 
dom can  be  realized  by  him. 

"In  spite  of  all  these  things  and  sur- 
rounded as  he  has  been  by  all  manner  of 
hindrances  and  misfortune,  the  'Indian  of 
tomorrow'  is  living  here  and  there,  a  few 
at  least,  in  almost  every  northern  and 
western  state  and  territory,  having  risen 
above  the  circumstances,  which  handi- 
capped his  people  until  he  is  one  in  civil- 
ization, in  business  and  public  affairs  with 
his  pale  face  brother.  The  'Indian  of  to- 
morrow' by  virtue  of  his  struggles  today 
will  not  be  treading  a  pathway  beset  with 
the  same  kind  of  pitfalls  as  in  the  past. 
He  will  be  marching  and  keeping  step 
with  all  others  of  the  world's  vast  army  of 
workers,  where  neither  he  nor  they  will 
think  of  wars  and  strife,  hatred  and  re- 
venge. The  'Indian  of  tomorrow'  will  be, 
not  an  unfortunate  savage,  clothed  in  the 
accoutrements  of  his  former  benighted 
condition,  but  the  Indian  redeemed,  trans- 
formed and  raised  to  the  plane  of  man- 
hood, which  he  long  since  would  have  oc- 
cupied had  the  man  of  him  been  discov- 
[  120  ] 


MEXICO 

ered  and  by  intelligent  treatment  been 
developed. 

"The  Indian,  as  he  is  known  in  story 
and  song,  as  he  has  been  pictured  in  fire- 
side tales  and  in  one-sided  history,  will  not 
be  recognized  in  the  'Indian  of  tomorrow.' 
Those  who  know  the  Indian's  character 
feel  justified  in  saying  that  the  Indian  him- 
self does  not  desire  to  perpetuate  the  recol- 
lections of,  nor  rehearse  the  scenes  and  in- 
cidents of  his  former  life,  being  content  to 
take  on  the  new  life,  free  and  unburdened 
of  everything  connected  with  his  unprofit- 
able past. 

"The  'Indian  of  tomorrow,'  will,  how- 
ever, be  in  some  respect,  at  least,  the  'In- 
dian of  today,'  in  that  he  will  be  highly  en- 
dowed with  a  sense  of  what  is  just  between 
man  and  man,  will  have  a  keen  sense  of 
appreciation  of  kindness  extended  to  him, 
and  for  many  generations  yet  to  come  he 
will  continue  to  be  unemotional.  His 
hopes  lie  in  the  possibility  of  becoming  a 
full  man  and  not  that  he  may  be  made 
simply  'a  better  Indian.' " 

This  was  a  wonderful  speech  for  a  per- 
[  121  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

son  born  an  Apache  Indian  to  make  and 
is  rarely  excelled  by  those  born  of  civilized 
parents. 

There  are  several  millions  of  such  in- 
dividuals in  Mexico  who  are  ready  to 
emerge  from  an  aboriginal  condition  of 
life  into  civilization,  but  without  help  it 
will  take  them  many  generations  to  make 
the  change,  and  the  question  is — Will  the 
people  of  the  United  States  give  the  inhab- 
itants of  Mexico  the  help  they  need? 

Mexico  in  theory  is  our  sister  Republic, 
in  fact,  however,  she  has  for  centuries  been 
torn  with  revolutions,  except  during  pe- 
riods when  her  people  have  been  ruled  by 
a  dictator.  The  mineral  and  timber  re- 
sources of  Mexico  are  very  extensive.  The 
soil  in  many  localities  is  very  fertile.  The 
City  of  Mexico  is  nearly  eight  thousand 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  the 
climate  there  and  in  many  parts  of  Mex- 
ico is  most  delightful  and  agreeable.  Civ- 
ilization— which  is  progress  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  of  society  to  a  higher  and  bet- 
ter condition  of  order,  justice,  right  and 
reason — is  extended  in  a  community  like 
[  122  ] 


MEXICO 

Mexico,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  by  the  es- 
tablishment of  schools  and  churches  even 
more  than  by  trade  and  commerce. 

Unless  order  and  justice  prevail  in  a 
country,  trade  and  commerce  and  life  it- 
self are  insecure  and  we  of  the  United 
States  ought  to  find,  if  possible,  some  plan, 
which  will  help  to  bring  better  order  and 
justice  among  the  people  of  Mexico. 


[  123  ] 


LAW  AND  POLITICS. 

It  requires  a  great  deal  of  study  to 
understand  the  laws,  and  the  making  of 
the  laws  under  which  we  live,  and  every 
person  who  has  the  right  to  vote  and  par- 
ticipate in  our  free  form  of  government 
owes  it  to  himself  and  to  his  country  to 
devote  sufficient  time  to  the  study  of 
political  problems  to  enable  him  to  vote 
intelligently. 

Law  is  a  rule  for  human  conduct  within 
a  community  which  by  common  consent 
of  this  community  may  be  enforced  by  all 
of  the  power  of  the  government  which 
has  made  it;  the  government  may  call  out 
the  army  and  navy,  if  necessary,  to  com- 
pel obedience  to  its  laws. 

Politics  is  the  art  of  government,  and 
rests  on  the  knowledge  of  human  nature. 
Wherever  persons  associate  together  they 
must  have  rules  of  conduct,  for  each  per- 
son must  respect  the  rights  of  others,  this 
[  124  ] 


LAW  AND  POLITICS 

is  called  justice,  every  violation  of  a  right 
is  called  injustice. 

We  do  not  live  alone  in  a  solitary  place, 
we  are  constantly  associating  with  other 
persons,  which  is  called  society,  which  is 
of  course  indispensable  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  human  family  and  moral  de- 
velopment. In  this  society,  every  person 
is  entitled  to  liberty,  which  does  not  mean 
that  he  may  do  whatever  he  will,  but  that 
he  may  do  whatever  he  has  the  right  to 
do;  then  there  must  be  equality  in  the 
rights  of  persons,  and  punishment  for 
those  who  violate  these  rights. 

Therefore  in  order  that  we  may  know 
what  are  our  rights  we  must  have  a  gov- 
ernment which  will  define  these  rights, 
and  protect  life,  liberty,  property  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness,  and  in  theory  at 
least,  government  is  justice  armed  with 
force. 

There  are  of  course  different  forms  of 
government,  but  ours  is  a  Representative 
government,  in  which  each  citizen  has 
the  right  to  help  make  the  laws  under 
which  he  lives,  through  his  or  her  vote  for 
[  125  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

the  person  who  shall  be  elected  to  repre- 
sent him  or  her  in  governmental  affairs. 

The  majority  of  the  people  of  our  coun- 
try make  the  laws  themselves  through 
their  representatives;  if  an  old  law  is  un- 
satisfactory, they  may  repeal  it,  and  if 
they  believe  a  new  law  is  required,  they 
may  make  or  enact  a  new  one.  I  am  now 
referring  to  statutory  law,  which  is  writ- 
ten law,  the  common  law  is  the  unwritten 
law. 

We  have  a  dual  form  of  government, 
National  and  State;  the  United  States 
has  its  own  statutory  laws  which  are  called 
National  or  Federal  Laws,  and  each  State 
in  the  Union  has  its  own  separate  statu- 
tory laws,  which  are  called  State  Laws. 

Let  us  first  consider  a  few  of  the  Na- 
tional Laws  which  pertain  to  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States. 

Every  government  must  collect  the 
money  it  needs  for  the  payment  of  its  ex- 
penses; this  is  obtained  by  direct  or  indi- 
rect taxation,  and  the  laws  which  provide 
for  the  payment  of  taxes  are  called 

[  126  ] 


REVENUE  LAWS. 

If,  for  example,  you  pay  a  small  part  of 
your  income  each  year  for  the  support  of 
the  government,  such  a  tax  is  called  a  di- 
rect tax. 

If  a  person  brings  foreign  made  goods 
into  our  country  to  sell,  our  government 
can  require  him  to  pay  a  tax  on  these 
goods,  this  is  called  an  indirect  tax,  be- 
cause the  foreign  manufacturer  is  not  by 
any  law  required  to  bring  his  goods  here 
for  sale,  but  if  he  does,  he  adds  the  amount 
of  the  tax  to  his  price  and  therefore  the 
purchaser  or  consumer  indirectly  pays  the 
tax. 

The  money  used  for  the  payment  of  the 
expenses  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States  is  derived  principally  from  duties 
(or  taxes)  upon  imported  goods,  wares 
and  merchandise. 


[  127  ] 


TARIFF. 

The  word  "tariff"  is  generally  applied 
to  the  custom  duties  levied  by  Congress 
on  merchandise  imported  into  our  coun- 
try. This  form  of  taxation  was  used  by 
the  Romans  and  Greeks  two  thousand 
years  ago  and  has  been  in  use  by  different 
countries  since  that  time. 

One  of  the  first  laws  which  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  passed  in  1789 
was  a  Tariff  law,  first  to  provide  revenue 
for  the  government,  and  second  for  "the 
encouragement  and  protection  of  manu- 
facturers," of  the  United  States;  this  law 
was  signed  by  George  Washington.  At 
that  time  very  few  articles  were  manufac- 
tured in  our  country,  nearly  all  of  our  cit- 
izens were  engaged  in  agricultural  and 
shipping  pursuits,  and  most  of  the  mer- 
chandise which  they  used  was  manufac- 
tured in  Europe  and  shipped  to  America. 
The  Fathers  of  our  country,  among  them 
[  128  ] 


TARIFF 

Washington,  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  gave 
this  matter  very  great  thought,  they  knew 
that  if  we  continued  not  to  manufacture 
goods  in  our  country  we  would  be  com- 
pelled to  buy  our  supplies  from  European 
manufacturers,  and  possibly  to  pay  them 
exhorbitant  prices,  and  that  there  might 
be  times,  such  as  during  war,  when  we 
could  not  get  the  goods  we  needed  for  our 
comfort  at  any  price,  and  therefore  they 
believed  it  would  be  wise  to  pass  a  law 
which  would  induce  our  citizens  to  build 
factories  and  make  the  various  articles  we 
needed  here;  this  would  also  give  many 
of  our  citizens  employment,  and  would 
keep  a  very  large  amount  of  our  money  in 
circulation  among  the  people  of  our  coun- 
try instead  of  sending  it  abroad  to  pay  for 
foreign  made  goods;  and  by  making  a  very 
careful  adjustment  of  the  tariff  we  would 
protect  our  manufacturers  and  at  the  same 
time  collect  enough  duties  from  the  for- 
eign manufacturers  to  pay  a  large  part  of 
the  expenses  of  our  government. 

Thus  you  see  the  "tariff"  question  was 
an  important  question  in  our  very  first 
[  129  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

Congress,  and  it  has  been  one  of  the  most 
important  questions  in  nearly  every  con- 
gress since  that  time,  and  it  is  now,  the 
important  question  upon  which  our  two 
great  Republican  and  Democratic  parties 
are  divided. 

Many  of  the  persons  who  belong  to  the 
Democratic  party  believe  that  our  govern- 
ment ought  not  to  have  a  law  which  re- 
quires a  duty  or  tax  to  be  paid  on  goods 
manufactured  in  foreign  countries  and  im- 
ported here  for  sale;  they  believe  in  free 
trade,  that  is,  the  right  to  buy  wherever 
you  can  buy  the  cheapest,  and  the  right 
to  bring  foreign  made  goods  into  the  coun- 
try without  the  payment  of  any  duty  or 
tax;  that  the  government  ought  to  find 
some  other  way  to  collect  the  money  it 
requires  to  pay  its  expenses,  because,  they 
say,  a  tariff  law  protects  and  makes  rich 
a  few  manufacturers  at  the  expense  of  the 
many;  some  of  the  democrats,  however, 
believe  in  a  tariff  law  for  revenue  only  and 
not  for  protection. 

The  Republican  party  stands  for  a  pro- 
tective tariff.  The  members  of  this  party 
[  130  ] 


TARIFF 

believe  that  it  is  for  the  best  interests  of 
all  the  people  of  this  country  to  have  tariff 
laws  which  protect  home  industries 
against  the  competition  of  foreign  indus- 
tries; that  such  laws  encourage  the  build- 
ing of  factories  and  give  employment  to 
vast  numbers  of  persons  who  otherwise 
would  not  be  employed,  and  that  such  laws 
enable  the  manufacturers  to  pay  their  em- 
ployees higher  wages  than  are  paid  in 
foreign  countries,  and  that  it  is  better  to 
buy  goods  made  in  our  country  than  to 
send  our  money  to  foreign  countries  to  pay 
for  goods  made  there,  because  by  keeping 
the  money  in  circulation  here  we  then  have 
more  money  in  our  country,  and  every- 
one has  a  better  chance  to  get  some  of  it 
for  his  own  use. 

By  reason  of  these  differing  views  of 
the  voters  of  our  country  the  tariff  laws 
have  been  changed  many  times.  When- 
ever the  party  which  stands  at  the  elec- 
tion for  a  protective  tariff  succeeds,  we 
have  a  high  tariff,  and  when  the  opposi- 
tion party  comes  into  power,  the  law  is 
[  131  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

changed  and  the  tariff  is  taken  off  entirely, 
or  at  least  reduced. 

Henry  Clay  made  one  of  his  great 
speeches  in  the  United  States  Senate  in 
the  year  1832  on  the  subject  of  the  Tariff, 
in  which  he  described  first  the  business 
conditions  which  prevailed  in  the  country 
for  a  period  of  seven  years  under  a  low 
tariff,  and  then  the  conditions  which  pre- 
vailed for  a  like  period  under  a  protective 
tariff.  This  speech  is  so  interesting  and 
instructive  that  I  quote  from  it  the  follow- 
ing: 

"Eight  years  ago  it  was  my  painful  duty 
to  present  to  the  House  of  Congress  an 
unexaggerated  picture  of  the  general  dis- 
tress pervading  the  whole  land.  We  must 
all  yet  remember  some  of  its  frightful  fea- 
tures. We  all  know  that  the  people  were 
then  oppressed  and  borne  down  by  an 
enormous  load  of  debt;  that  the  value  of 
property  was  at  the  lowest  point  of  de- 
pression; that  ruinous  sales  and  sacrifices 
were  everywhere  made  of  real  estate ;  that 
stop  laws  and  relief  laws  and  paper  money 
were  adopted  to  save  the  people  from  im- 
[  132  ] 


TARIFF 

pending  destruction;  that  a  deficit  in  the 
public  revenue  existed,  which  compelled 
the  government  to  seize  upon,  and  divert 
from  its  legitimate  object,  the  appropria- 
tion to  the  sinking  fund,  to  redeem  the  na- 
tional debt;  and  that  our  commerce  and 
navigation  were  threatened  with  complete 
paralysis.  In  short,  sir,  if  I  were  to  select 
any  term  of  seven  years  since  the  adoption 
of  the  present  constitution,  which  exhib- 
ited a  scene  of  the  most  wide-spread  dis- 
may and  desolation,  it  would  be  exactly 
that  term  of  seven  years  which  immedi- 
ately preceded  the  establishment  of  the 
tariff  of  1824. 

"I  have  now  to  perform  the  more  pleas- 
ing task  of  exhibiting  an  imperfect  sketch 
of  the  existing  state  of  the  unparalleled 
prosperity  of  the  country. .  On  a  general 
survey,  we  behold  cultivation  extended, 
the  fine  arts  flourishing,  the  face  of  the 
country  improved,  our  people  fully  and 
profitably  employed,  and  the  public  coun- 
tenance exhibiting  tranquility,  content- 
ment, and  happiness.  And,  if  we  descend 
into  particulars,  we  have  the  agreeable 
[  133  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

contemplation  of  a  people  out  of  debt; 
land  rising  slowly  in  value,  but  in  a  secure 
and  salutary  degree;  a  ready  though  not 
extravagant  market  for  all  the  surplus 
productions  of  our  industry;  innumerable 
flocks  and  herds  browsing  and  gamboling 
on  ten  thousand  hills  and  plains,  covered 
with  rich  and  verdant  grasses;  our  cities 
expanded,  and  whole  villages  springing 
up,  as  it  were,  by  enchantment;  our  ex- 
ports and  imports  increased  and  increas- 
ing; our  tonnage,  foreign  and  coastwise, 
swelling  and  fully  occupied;  the  rivers  of 
our  interior  animated  by  the  perpetual 
thunder  and  lightning  of  countless  steam- 
boats; the  currency  sound  and  abundant; 
the  public  debt  of  two  wars  nearly  re- 
deemed; and  to  crown  all,  the  public  treas- 
ury overflowing,  embarrassing  Congress, 
not  to  find  subjects  of  taxation,  but  to  se- 
lect the  objects  which  shall  be  liberated 
from  the  impost.  If  the  term  of  seven 
years  were  to  be  selected  of  the  greatest 
prosperity  which  this  people  have  enjoyed 
since  the  establishment  of  their  present 
Constitution,  it  would  be  exactly  that  pe- 
[  134  ] 


TARIFF 

riod  of  seven  years  which  immediately  fol- 
lowed the  passage  of  the  tariff  of  1824. 

"This  transformation  of  the  conditions 
of  the  country  from  gloom  and  distress  to 
brightness  and  prosperity  has  been  mainly 
the  work  of  American  legislation,  foster- 
ing American  industry,  instead  of  allow- 
ing it  to  be  controlled  by  foreign  legisla- 
tion, cherishing  foreign  industry.  .  .  . 

"Thus,  sir,  has  this  great  system  of  pro- 
tection been  gradually  built  stone  upon 
stone,  and  step  by  step  from  the  fourth  of 
July,  1789,  down  to  the  present  period.  In 
every  stage  of  its  progress  it  has  received 
the  deliberate  sanction  of  Congress.  A 
vast  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  has  approved,  and  continues  to  ap- 
prove it.  Every  Chief  Magistrate  of  the 
United  States,  from  Washington  to  the 
present,  in  some  form  or  other,  has  given 
to  it  the  authority  of  his  name. 

"The  people  of  the  United  States  have 
justly  supposed  that  the  policy  of  protect- 
ing their  industry  against  foreign  legisla- 
tion and  foreign  industry  was  fully  set- 
tled, not  by  a  single  act,  but  by  repeated 
[  135  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

and  deliberate  acts  of  government  per- 
formed at  distant  and  frequent  intervals. 
In  full  confidence  that  the  policy  was 
firmly  and  unchangeably  fixed  thousands 
upon  thousands  have  invested  their  cap- 
ital, purchased  a  vast  amount  of  real  and 
other  estate,  made  permanent  establish- 
ments, and  accommodated  their  industry." 

In  1846  Congress  again  changed  the 
tariff  laws,  and  during  the  debate  in  the 
Senate,  Daniel  Webster  said  in  the  course 
of  his  speech: 

"This,  is  therefore  a  country  of  labor. 
I  do  not  mean  manual  labor  entirely. 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  that;  but  I  mean 
some  sort  of  employment  that  requires 
personal  attention,  either  of  oversight  or 
manual  performance;  some  form  of  active 
business.  That  is  the  character  of  our 
people,  and  that  is  the  condition  of  our 
people.  Our  destiny  is  labor.  Now,  what 
is  the  first  great  cause  of  prosperity  with 
such  a  people?  Simply  employment.  Why 
we  have  cheap  food  and  cheap  clothing, 
and  there  is  no  sort  of  doubt  that  these 
things  are  very  desirable  to  all  persons  of 
[  136  ] 


TARIFF 

moderate  circumstances  and  laborers.  But 
they  are  not  the  first  requisites.  The  first 
requisite  is  that  which  enables  men  to  buy 
food  and  clothing,  cheap  or  dear.  ...  In 
Europe  the  question  is,  how  men  can  live? 
With  us  the  question  is,  how  well  they  can 
live?  Can  they  live  on  wholesome  food,  in 
commodious  and  comfortable  dwellings? 
Can  they  be  well  clothed,  and  be  able  to 
educate  their  children? 

"The  interest  of  every  laboring  com- 
munity requires  diversity  of  occupations, 
pursuits  and  objects  of  industry.  The 
more  that  diversity  is  multiplied  or  ex- 
tended, the  better.  To  diversify  employ- 
ment is  to  increase  employment,  and  to 
enhance  wages.  And,  sir,  take  this  great 
truth;  place  it  on  the  title  page  of  every 
book  of  political  economy  intended  for  the 
use  of  the  United  States;  put  it  in  every 
Farmer's  Almanac;  let  it  be  the  heading  of 
every  column  in  every  Mechanic's  Maga- 
zine; proclaim  it  everywhere,  and  make  it 
a  proverb,  that  where  there  is  work  for  the 
hands  of  men,  there  will  be  work  for  their 
teeth.  Where  there  is  employment,  there 
[  137  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

will  be  bread.  It  is  a  great  blessing  to  the 
poor  to  have  cheap  food;  but  greater  than 
that,  prior  to  that,  and  of  still  higher  value 
is  the  blessing  of  being  able  to  buy  food 
by  honest  and  respectable  employment. 
Employment  gives  health,  sobriety,  and 
morals.  Constant  employment  and  well 
paid  labor  produce  in  a  country  like  ours, 
general  prosperity,  content  and  cheerful- 
ness. Thus  happy  have  we  seen  the  coun- 
try. Thus  happy  may  we  long  continue  to 
see  it." 

Since  that  time  the  tariff  laws  have  been 
changed  a  number  of  times,  notably  in 
1894  the  tariffs  on  imports  were  reduced 
and  as  a  result  of  these  reductions  many 
factories  were  closed  and  many  men 
thrown  out  of  employment,  and  there  was 
a  general  depression  in  business.  Three 
years  later  a  new  protective  tariff  law  was 
passed  by  congress  and  prosperity  re- 
turned. In  1913,  Congress  again  reduced 
the  tariff  on  imports,  and  as  a  result  many 
factories  were  closed  and  many  of  our  cit- 
izens were  deprived  of  employment. 

The  citizenry  of  our  country  is  different 
[  138  ] 


TARIFF 

from  that  of  most  other  countries.  Our 
citizens  have  a  voice  in  the  government  of 
the  United  States,  and  if  our  popular  form 
of  government  is  to  endure,  our  citizens 
must  have  reasonable  working  hours, 
comfortable  homes  and  proper  pay  for 
their  work,  otherwise  they  cannot  educate 
their  children  as  they  ought  to  be  edu- 
cated and  they  will  be  compelled  to  start 
them  at  work  in  factories,  etc.,  at  such  an 
early  age  that  they  will  be  prevented  from 
developing  mentally  and  physically  into 
the  kind  of  citizens  who  are  capable  of 
properly  participating  in  our  free  form  of 
government. 

A  government  owes  a  great  duty  to  its 
citizens,  it  ought  to  enact  laws  which  will 
help  and  protect  them.  If  a  government 
of  a  foreign  country  is  so  deficient  that  it 
permits  conditions  to  exist  which  compel 
a  considerable  portion  of  its  people  to  la- 
bor for  fifty  cents  or  less  a  day,  that  is  no 
reason  why  we  should  compel  our  laborers 
to  compete  with  the  product  of  that  wage. 
We  can  prevent  such  unfair  competition 
by  protective  tariff  laws. 
[  139  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

Free  trade  is  ideal,  we  have  it  through- 
out our  forty-eight  states,  which  is  prob- 
ably the  largest  free  trade  territory  in  the 
world.  But  free  trade  will  not  be  ideal 
between  the  United  States  and  all  foreign 
countries  until  the  other  countries  have 
placed  their  laborers  upon  the  same  com- 
fortable scale  of  living  as  our  own. 

It  requires  great  skill  and  a  vast  amount 
of  research  to  make  a  just  and  proper  pro- 
tective tariff  law.  Care  must  be  exercised 
that  the  tariff  is  not  made  so  high  on  the 
so-called  necessities  of  life  that  an  unjust 
burden  will  be  imposed  upon  the  consum- 
ers of  our  country. 

We  must  also  bear  in  mind  that  in  our 
country  we  have  many  great  manufactur- 
ing establishments  engaged  in  world  com- 
merce, and  if  their  cost  of  production  is 
made  too  great  by  reason  of  excessive 
wages,  cost  of  raw  material,  or  transporta- 
tion, they  will  not  be  able  to  sell  the  prod- 
ucts of  their  factories  in  foreign  markets 
in  competition  with  manufacturers  in 
other  countries  where  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion is  much  lower  than  here. 
[  140  ] 


TARIFF 

In  other  words  the  tariff  must  be  very 
delicately  adjusted,  so  that  it  will  properly 
protect  the  laborer  and  manufacturer 
without  extortion  to  the  consumer. 

The  changes  which  have  occurred  in  the 
tariff  laws  during  the  last  one  hundred 
and  twenty-six  years  show  clearly  the 
meaning  of  "a  government  of  the  people, 
by  the  people  and  for  the  people"  such  as 
ours,  for  we  find  in  1789  George  Wash- 
ington and  the  other  leaders  of  the  gov- 
ernment in  favor  of  a  protective  tariff  to 
encourage  home  industries,  and  they  en- 
acted a  protective  tariff  law ;  then  in  a  few 
years  the  majority  of  the  voters  changed 
their  minds  and  Congress  passed  a  law 
reducing  the  tariff;  then  after  the  people 
had  worked  under  a  low  tariff  law  for  a 
few  years,  they  again  became  dissatisfied 
with  a  low  tariff,  and  the  question  was 
debated  by  the  speakers  and  orators  dur- 
ing the  campaign  for  office,  and  the  ma- 
jority came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States  would  be  more 
prosperous  and  contented  under  a  protec- 
tive tariff,  and  so  representatives  were 
[  Hi  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

elected  who  at  once  enacted  a  protective 
tariff  law;  and  so  these  changes  in  the 
tariff  laws  have  been  made  many  times, 
the  pendulum  first  swinging  one  way,  and 
then  back  again. 

All  of  which  illustrates  that  the  major- 
ity of  the  people  can  have  whatever  laws 
they  want  to  live  under,  so  long  as  they  do 
not  enact  laws  which  violate  the  provisions 
of  the  Constitution  which  is  the  funda- 
mental law;  but  they  can  even  change  the 
provisions  of  the  Constitution  in  the  man- 
ner therein  prescribed. 

These  facts  show  you  how  closely 
bound  together  are  politics  and  the  law, 
and  how  necessary  it  is  for  the  law  makers 
to  have  not  only  a  knowledge  of  the  law, 
but  also  a  thorough  knowledge  of  human 
nature. 


[  142  ] 


INTER  STATE  COMMERCE  LAW. 

Under  the  "commerce  clause"  of  our 
Constitution  Congress  has  the  power  to 
regulate  commerce  with  foreign  Nations 
and  among  the  several  States,  and  in  the 
exercise  of  that  power  Congress  passed  a 
law  in  1887  creating  the  Inter  State  Com- 
merce Commission  which  is  composed  of 
five  commissioners  who  are  appointed  by 
the  President  of  the  United  States  by  and 
with  the  consent  of  the  Senate;  the  Com- 
mission was  given  the  power  among  others 
to  regulate  the  rates  which  railroad  com- 
panies might  charge  for  transporting  pas- 
sengers and  freight  from  one  State  to  an- 
other. 

In  performing  this  great  service  the 
Commission  must  have  respect  for  the 
rights  of  others,  in  other  words  it  must 
determine  what  is  Justice.  On  the  one 
hand  it  must  decide  what  rates  are  reason- 
able and  necessary  to  enable  the  Railroad 
[  H3  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

Companies  to  earn  enough  money  to  main- 
tain their  properties  in  the  highest  state 
of  efficiency  and  safety,  and  to  pay  their 
employees  proper  compensation,  and  also 
to  pay  reasonable  dividends  to  their  stock- 
holders; on  the  other  hand  it  must  de- 
termine what  are  reasonable  rates  or 
charges  for  the  shippers  and  passengers  to 
pay  for  the  service  they  receive,  and  in  do- 
ing this  it  is  necessary  for  them  to  take 
into  consideration  many  things  such  as 
the  volume  and  value  of  the  article 
shipped,  water  competition,  etc. 

You  ask  why  it  was  necessary  for  Con- 
gress to  pass  a  law  creating  a  Commission 
of  five  men  who  should  have  the  power  to 
decide  how  much  money  a  railroad  com- 
pany should  charge  for  transporting  a  car 
of  wheat  from  Chicago  to  New  York, 
when  the  government  does  not  regulate 
the  price  fixed  by  the  farmer  for  the  wheat 
which  he  raised  on  his  farm?  One  answer 
is — a  railroad  company  is  a  quasi  public 
corporation,  which  means  that  it  has  at 
least  one  of  the  powers  which  is  generally 
possessed  only  by  the  government,  that  is 
[  H4  ] 


INTERSTATE  COMMERCE  LAW 

the  right  of  eminent  domain,  which  means 
for  illustration,  that  if  you  own  a  farm  or 
any  other  piece  of  land  not  used  for  public 
purposes,  and  the  railroad  company  de- 
cides to  build  its  railroad  over  that  land  it 
can  do  so  whether  you  are  willing  to  sell 
the  land  or  not;  if  you  are  unwilling  to  sell 
the  land  to  the  railroad  company  it  can  go 
into  Court  and  have  the  Court  decide  how 
much  money  the  company  must  pay  you 
for  the  right  to  build  its  railroad  over  your 
property. 

Railroads  are  for  the  public  good  as  well 
as  private  gain.  It  would  not  be  fair  for  a 
railroad  company  to  have  the  right  to  take 
your  property  from  you  for  its  use  at  a 
price  fixed  by  a  Court  and  then  turn  round 
to  you  and  tell  you  it  would  not  carry  you 
or  your  freight  over  its  railroad  at  all,  or 
at  least  unless  you  paid  it  an  exhorbitant 
price  for  its  service.  You  are  justified  in 
contending  that  if  the  railroad  company 
has  the  right  to  go  into  Court  and  have  it 
fix  the  price  at  which  it  may  take  your 
property,  there  ought  to  be  a  tribunal 
where  you  could  go  and  have  a  reasonable 
[  H5  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

price  fixed  for  the  railroad  to  charge  you 
for  the  service  it  renders  to  you.  Now, 
what  is  a  reasonable  price  for  the  service 
which  a  railroad  renders  in  carrying  pas- 
sengers or  freight  is  a  very  difficult  prob- 
lem, and  the  solution  of  it  requires  a  vast 
amount  of  knowledge  and  experience,  and 
so  Congress  decided  it  was  the  part  of  wis- 
dom to  appoint  an  Inter  State  Commerce 
Commission,  whose  members  should  de- 
vote all  of  their  time  to  questions  involved 
in  inter-state  commerce  and  become  ex- 
perts in  such  matters. 

There  was  another  reason  which  led 
Congress  to  make  laws  regulating  inter- 
state carriers;  they  wanted  to  stop  the 
evil  of  rebates,  which  was  disastrous  to 
the  railroads  as  well  as  to  the  shippers. 
For  illustration,  if  a  manufacturer  of  ma- 
chines wanted  to  ship  a  hundred  carloads 
of  machines  from  Chicago  to  Kansas  City, 
knowing  the  regular  rate,  we  will  say,  was 
$100  for  each  car,  he  would  go  to  several 
different  railroads  and  try  to  get  a  lower 
rate  and  finally  one  railroad  anxious  to  get 
the  shipment  would  offer  to  give  him  a  re- 
[  H6  ] 


INTERSTATE  COMMERCE  LAW 

bate  of  $50  on  each  car  shipped;  another 
shipper  would  try  to  get  the  same  rebate, 
but  the  railroad  company  would  refuse  to 
give  it  to  him,  and  he  would  be  unable  to 
sell  his  machines  in  competition  with  the 
shipper  who  received  the  rebate,  and  so 
he  very  properly  became  dissatisfied  and 
cried  out  to  have  the  wrong  corrected. 

It  is  far  better  to  have  government  com- 
missions and  courts  regulate  these  matters 
than  to  have  the  government  own  and  op- 
erate the  railroads  which  is  the  next  step 
beyond  regulation.  The  members  of  the 
commission  are  appointed  to  serve  a  term 
of  seven  years  and  are  each  paid  an  an- 
nual salary  of  $10,000. 


MONOPOLIES. 

In  1890'  Congress  enacted  the  Anti- 
trust law,  the  purpose  of  which  was  to 
condemn  all  combinations  and  conspir- 
acies which  restrain  the  free  and  natural 
flow  of  trade  in  the  channels  of  inter-state 
commerce.  This,  of  course,  does  not  de- 
stroy the  monopoly  which  is  granted  to  a 
person  under  the  patent  laws  which  are 
intended  to  encourage  useful  inventions. 
The  courts  have  decided  that  the  anti-trust 
law  covers  any  illegal  means  by  which  in- 
ter-state commerce  is  restrained  whether 
by  unlawful  combinations  of  capital,  or 
unlawful  combinations  of  labor.  Many 
cases  of  the  greatest  importance  have  been 
tried  under  this  law  and  practically  all  un- 
reasonable restraints  or  monopolies  have 
been  condemned  by  the  courts.  Congress 
has  amended  this  law  from  time  to  time 
and  has  recently  created  a  Federal  Trade 
Commission  composed  of  five  members  ap- 
[  H8  ] 


MONOPOLIES 

pointed  by  the  President  by  and  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  whose 
chief  duty  appears  to  be  to  prevent  unfair 
methods  of  competition  in  commerce. 


[  149  ] 


STATUTES. 

I  have  above  referred  to  the  Revenue, 
Inter  State  Commerce  and  Anti-trust 
laws  of  the  United  States  for  the  purpose 
of  giving  you  some  little  information 
about  these  laws,  and  to  show  you  how 
these  laws  are  made  and  changed  from 
time  to  time  to  meet  the  demands  of  the 
people  who  live  under  these  laws.  The 
laws  which  I  have  referred  to  cover  but  a 
few  pages  of  the  Statutes  of  the  United 
States  which  contain  more  than  five  thou- 
sand printed  pages  of  laws,  and  you,  of 
course,  could  not  become  familiar  with  all 
of  these  laws  without  extended  study. 

The  various  States  of  the  Union  have 
their  separate  statutes  or  codes  which  con- 
tain the  laws  applicable  to  rights  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  State.  For  example, 
each  State  has  its  revenue  or  tax  laws  to 
raise  money  for  the  expenses  of  local  gov- 
ernment, and  its  laws  pertaining  to  rates 
[  150  ] 


STATUTES 

to  be  charged  by  railroads  for  carrying 
passengers  and  property  from  one  point 
to  another  within  the  State;  also  laws  per- 
taining to  monopolies  within  the  State  and 
many  other  laws  pertaining  to  property 
and  persons. 


[  151  ] 


POLITICAL  PARTIES. 

The  views  of  individuals  differ  on  many 
of  the  political  questions  of  the  day,  and 
so  it  is  necessary  to  have  political  parties. 
A  political  party  is  composed  of  voters 
who  substantially  agree  upon  certain  fun- 
damental principles  pertaining  to  govern- 
ment; these  voters  unite,  and  work  to- 
gether, for  the  purpose  of  carrying  their 
political  beliefs  into  effect.  A  political 
party,  in  order  to  be  effective,  must  be 
practical,  it  must  be  organized,  and  is 
sometimes  called  a  political  machine.  For 
example,  each  party  must  have  its  Na- 
tional Committee  which  is  composed  of  a 
certain  number  of  leading  men  of  that  po- 
litical faith  from  each  State;  they  elect  a 
chairman  of  the  committee,  treasurer,  sec- 
retary and  other  officers;  this  committee 
deals  principally  with  national  questions 
such  as  the  election  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  Then  we  have  a  State 
[  152  ] 


POLITICAL  PARTIES 

Committee,  and  a  County  Committee,  and 
frequently  a  City  or  Local  Committee, 
which  are  similarly  organized  to  handle 
the  party  political  matters  which  come 
under  their  respective  jurisdictions. 

It  is  an  extremely  difficult  matter  to  or- 
ganize a  new  political  party  successfully, 
and  cannot  be  done  unless  some  great  po- 
litical issue  is  involved;  it  is  generally  bet- 
ter to  stick  to  the  political  party  of  your 
choice  and  attempt  to  reform  it  from  with- 
in. 

The  various  States  of  the  Union  are  very 
justly  enacting  laws  which  give  women 
the  right  to  vote.  Women  have  the  legal 
right  to  own  property  in  their  own  name 
and  to  engage  in  business,  and  they  ought 
to  have  a  voice  in  the  making  of  the  laws 
under  which  they  live  and  in  the  election 
of  persons  to  fill  the  offices  of  public  serv- 
ice. 

Many  persons  become  so  engrossed  in 
their  private  business  that  they  do  not  give 
proper  attention  to  public  or  political  mat- 
ters, and  it  is  my  belief  that  with  the  ap- 
pearance of  women  in  politics  a  vastly 
[  153  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

greater  number  of  our  citizens  will  more 
intelligently  and  more  thoroughly  perform 
their  civic  duties. 

The  right  of  women,  as  well  as  of  men, 
to  vote,  carries  with  it  the  duty  on  their 
part  to  vote,  and  to  study  and  inform 
themselves  intelligently  upon  questions 
pertaining  to  good  government. 

When  office  holders  become  corrupt  and 
incompetent,  the  cry  is  raised  "turn  the 
rascals  out"  and  the  people  generally  vote 
them  out  of  office.  But  when  a  Dictator 
and  his  cohorts  prove  to  be  corrupt,  arbi- 
trary and  unjust,  they  cannot  be  voted  out 
of  power  by  the  people  and  it  then  be- 
comes necessary  to  resort  to  war,  or  else 
continue  to  suffer  injustice  and  wrong. 


[  154  ] 


CHURCH. 

There  is  in  every  individual,  a  sense  of 
a  Creator,  a  God  or  an  Infinite  Power  lead- 
ing him  ever  onward  and  upward.  Man 
has  some  knowledge  of  the  Universe,  but 
not  much.  We  have  learned  that  the  earth 
on  which  we  live  is  round,  that  it  revolves 
around  the  sun,  that  it  is  a  part  of  a  solar 
system,  that  the  millions  of  stars  we  see 
in  the  heavens  at  night  are  also  parts  of 
solar  systems  all  in  constant  and  terrific 
motion  controlled  and  directed  by  some 
Power,  we  know  not  what;  that  some  of 
these  stars  are  planets,  many  larger,  and 
others  smaller  than  the  earth,  that  these 
planets  have  mountains  and  valleys,  air 
and  sunlight  similar  to  ours,  but  who  live 
on  these  millions  of  planets  we  know  not. 

"From  whence  we  came  or  whither  we 

go"  we  do  not  know,  but  we  all  have  our 

faith  and  our  belief.    We  know  that  when 

our  body  came  upon  this  earth  there  was 

[  155  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

in  it  the  Spirit  of  Life,  and  that  when  the 
Spirit  of  Life  departs,  our  body  will  soon 
become  extinct  and  utilized  by  nature  for 
other  purposes,  for  nature  knows  no 
waste. 

But  where  did  the  Spirit  of  Life  come 
from  and  where  does  it  go  when  it  leaves 
our  bodies?  Men  have  been  asking  them- 
selves and  each  other  these  questions  for 
thousands  of  years,  and  out  of  these  ques- 
tions have  developed  many  religious 
creeds. 

More  than  four  thousand  years  ago  the 
Chaldeans  had  their  religious  creeds;  they 
established  churches,  or  places  of  worship 
and  met  together  at  regular  intervals.  The 
very  early  history  of  the  Medes  and  Per- 
sians shows  that  they  also  had  a  religion 
similar  to  that  of  the  Chaldeans. 

Buddha  was  born  about  twenty-five 
hundred  years  ago;  he  was  a  warrior 
prince,  the  son  of  one  of  the  rulers  of 
Northern  India.  He  established  the  be- 
lief or  creed  called  Buddhism,  and  began 
his  ministry  at  Benares.  He  first  con- 
verted five  monks,  then  many  of  the  noble 
[  156  ] 


CHURCH 

youth  of  the  city,  and  then  a  thousand 
Brahman  priests.  He  spent  more  than 
forty  years  of  his  life  wandering  about 
preaching  his  new  creed  which  spread 
with  wonderful  rapidity,  and  has  been  fol- 
lowed by  many  millions  of  persons  since 
that  time  but  is  now  supplanted  by  Hindu- 
ism, the  prevailing  religion  of  India. 

The  ancient  religion  of  the  Arabs  was 
the  worship  of  the  stars  which  gradually 
changed  to  the  worship  of  idols,  and  con- 
tinued until  the  time  of  Mohammed  who 
was  born  about  fourteen  hundred  years 
ago.  He  believed  or  pretended  he  was  a 
prophet,  and  his  revelations  are  found  in 
the  Koran.  Mohammedanism  was  ex- 
tended largely  by  the  sword,  but  when  its 
founder  died  it  was  firmly  established  as 
a  great  political  power  as  well  as  a  religion 
and  is  now  said  to  be  the  belief  of  nearly 
two  hundred  million  people. 

Confucius  was  born  in  China  about 
twenty-five  hundred  years  ago.  His  father 
was  the  governor  of  Tson.  Confucius  be- 
came a  public  teacher  and  had  many  fol- 
lowers. He  held  several  public  offices  and 
[  157  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

finally  became  Minister  of  Crime.  He  was 
a  man  of  wonderful  ability,  but  he  lost  the 
support  of  his  ruler  and  spent  the  last 
eighteen  years  of  his  life  wandering  from 
state  to  state  giving  beneficent  counsel. 
He  dealt  with  neither  theology  nor  meta- 
physics, but  with  moral  and  political  con- 
duct. "After  his  death  his  wisdom  was 
recognized  by  peasant  and  emperor  alike, 
admiration  rose  to  veneration,  veneration 
to  worship,  sacrifices  were  offered  to  him, 
temples  built  in  his  honor,  and  a  cult  es- 
tablished which  has  lasted  more  than  2,000 
years."  The  "Sayings  of  Confucius"  were 
compiled  some  time  after  his  death. 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  religious 
creeds  which  have  been  developed  by  men, 
and  I  mention  them  to  you  to  show  how 
interesting  may  be  the  study  of  religion. 

The  Bible  contains  the  teachings  of  the 
Christian  religion  which  we  believe  is  the 
most  beautiful  and  helpful  of  all  religions, 
and  which  we  hope  will  some  day  become 
the  religion  of  all  the  people  of  the  earth. 
I  shall  not  attempt  to  discuss  here  the  re- 
ligious doctrines  contained  in  the  Holy 
[  158  ] 


CHURCH 

Bible,  except  to  say  that  I  commend  its 
study  to  you;  in  it  you  will  find  the  prin- 
ciples which  for  many  centuries  have  been 
the  basis  of  the  laws  governing  civilized 
men,  and  it  contains  the  best  wisdom  of 
the  world  and  the  deepest  truths  of  re- 
ligion. 

One  day  in  each  week,  the  Sabbath,  is 
set  aside  for  rest  and  religious  service,  and 
on  this  day  you  should  attend  Church,  and 
if  you  do  so,  you  will  find  the  burdens  of 
living  much  easier  to  bear,  and  the  cup  of 
happiness  much  fuller  than  if  you  do  not 
go.  It  stands  to  reason  that  if  you  spend 
a  portion  of  one  day  in  each  week  in  the 
study  of  the  best  wisdom  of  the  world  and 
in  religious  thought  you  will  be  a  better 
and  wiser  person,  and  understand  better 
how  to  get  the  best  there  is  out  of  life. 

Doubt  may  creep  into  your  mind  some- 
times concerning  the  miracles  of  Christ  re- 
lated in  the  New  Testament,  but  if  you 
will  stop  and  think,  you  will  find  it  no 
more  difficult  to  believe  that  the  Creator, 
who  has  given  you  the  Spirit  of  Life  could 
also  give  to  Christ  the  power  to  perform 
[  159  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

these  miracles,  in  order  that  He  might  at- 
tract the  attention  of  the  people  of  the 
earth  to  the  importance  of  His  teachings. 
In  other  words,  we  know  that  the  Creator 
has  placed  us  on  this  earth  to  live,  why 
should  He  not  find  His  way  to  tell  us  how 
best  to  live  our  lives  while  here,  and  also 
some  idea  of  a  life  hereafter? 

The  Church  uplifts  men,  it  stands  for 
the  highest  morals  and  is  the  greatest  in- 
fluence for  right  living. 

You  seldom  see  persons  who  live  under 
its  influence  resorting  to  the  divorce 
courts,  or  involved  in  criminal  prosecu- 
tion, they  learn  how  to  bear  the  frailties 
of  others,  and  to  resist  the  temptation  to 
commit  crimes.  In  times  of  sorrow  you 
will  find  your  greatest  consolation  in  re- 
ligious thoughts. 

Through  the  Church  great  and  impor- 
tant charities  are  conducted  which  lighten 
the  burdens  of  untold  numbers  of  unfor- 
tunate persons,  and  you  should  do  your 
part  in  this  work. 

The  minister  of  your  Church  gives  all 
of  his  time  and  thought  to  the  solution  of 
[  160  ] 


CHURCH 

these  problems,  and  if  you  listen  to  him 
every  Sunday,  you  will  have  a  much  great- 
er knowledge  of  these  questions,  and  know 
better  how  to  make  yourself  useful  in  this 
world,  which  should  be  your  chief  aim  in 
life. 

Such  is  the  work  of  the  Church  which 
you  should  attend  and  support,  not  alone 
for  its  benefit  to  you,  but  for  its  help  to 
others,  its  help  to  mankind. 

There  are  millions  of  Christian  men  in 
the  United  States;  be  one  of  them,  your- 
self. 


[  161  ] 


TIME. 

If  some  one  should  offer  to  give  you  a 
million  dollars  on  condition  that  you 
should  have  but  twenty- four  hours  more  of 
Time  in  which  to  live,  you  would  of  course 
decline  the  offer,  because  you  prize  the 
time  during  which  you  may  live  more 
highly  than  money. 

Time  is  a  measure  of  duration,  from  one 
moment  to  another,  or  from  any  period  to 
another. 

Time  is  a  measure  of  duration  of  Life, 
how  shall  you  use  or  spend  the  precious 
Time  of  your  Life? 

You  are  a  member  of  a  civilized  family 
and  belong  to  a  civilized  race. 

You  are  not  living  the  life  of  an  abor- 
iginal who  spent  his  time  during  his  youth 
rolling  upon  the  grass  and  roaming 
through  the  woods.  If  you  spend  all  of 
your  time  during  your  youth  in  such  a 
manner  you  may  grow  to  manhood  phy- 
[  162  ] 


TIME 

sically  strong,  but  mentally  you  will  be  as 
deficient  as  an  uneducated  Apache  Indian. 

If  you  spend  the  time  of  your  youth 
roaming  the  streets  and  in  resorts  with  evil 
companions  and  idlers,  you  will  acquire 
their  habits  of  thought  and  become  a  men- 
ace to  civilized  society,  and  sooner  or  later 
you  must  pay  the  price  of  wrongly  spent 
time. 

All  members  of  civilized  society  must 
work,  which  means  doing  something  use- 
ful for  men. 

"Work  wins"  is  the  message  sent  you  by 
the  Chief  Justice  of  England,  who  by  hard 
work  and  the  proper  use  of  his  time  has 
won  his  way  to  leadership  among  men. 

"As  ye  sow,  so  shall  ye  reap."  If  you 
do  not  plant  seeds  of  corn  in  your  land, 
you  of  course  will  not  have  a  corn  crop. 
But  if  you  do  properly  plant  grains  of  corn, 
and  cultivate  the  soil,  each  grain  of  corn 
planted  will  yield  to  you  at  the  end  of  the 
season  many  more  grains  of  corn.  And 
so  it  is  with  your  mind,  if  you  spend  your 
time  when  young  in  learning  how  to  read 
and  write  you  will  use  that  knowledge 
[  163  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

many  million  times  later  in  life.  And  so 
it  is  with  every  useful  thing  you  learn 
when  you  are  young,  you  may  use  that 
knowledge  a  million  times  later  on  in  life. 
If  you  once  learn  how  to  make  a  machine, 
or  build  a  house,  or  try  a  lawsuit,  or  preach 
a  sermon,  or  cure  the  sick,  or  earn  money 
in  many  different  ways,  you  can  do  the 
same  thing  over  and  over  again  during  the 
balance  of  the  time  you  have  to  live.  But 
if  you  continue  to  waste  all  of  your  time 
in  play  or  idleness  you  will  find  when  you 
have  grown  to  manhood  that  you  have  not 
stored  up  in  your  mind  a  great  deal  of 
knowledge  which  you  ought  to  have;  and 
you  will  also  find  that  many  other  boys 
have  not  wasted  so  much  of  their  time,  but 
have  spent  their  time  gaining  knowledge, 
and  therefore  have  a  great  advantage  in 
obtaining  the  things  they  desire  and  need 
to  make  them  comfortable  in  life. 

I  was  in  Kentucky  a  short  time  ago  and 
saw  a  notice  posted  which  stated  that  more 
than  200,000  persons  in  that  state  could 
neither  read  nor  write.  You  know  it  has 
taken  you  but  a  short  time  to  learn  to  read 
[  164  ] 


TIME 

and  write.  Think  of  the  pleasure  and 
knowledge  those  200,000  persons  have 
been  deprived  of  by  not  spending  a  small 
part  of  their  time  when  they  were  young 
in  learning  to  read  and  write. 

Your  time  is  your  most  valuable  asset, 
don't  waste  it,  your  success  in  life  depends 
upon  how  you  have  used  your  time;  if  you 
have  a  little  extra  time,  don't  sit  and  worry 
or  dream  and  waste  it,  get  to  work  or  get 
a  good  book  and  read  of  the  experiences 
of  others. 

I  do  not  mean  to  tell  you  that  it  is  al- 
ways a  waste  of  time  to  play,  for  it  is  not 
so,  for  just  as  the  body  requires  rest  and 
sleep  and  nourishment  and  air,  so  does  the 
mind  need  some  recreation.  Learn  to  use 
your  time  to  the  very  best  advantage; 
don't  use  any  more  of  it  in  sleep  or  play 
than  is  necessary  to  keep  your  mind  and 
human  machine  in  a  high  condition  of  an- 
imal spirits.  Devote  as  much  of  your  time 
as  possible  to  gaining  knowledge  and  be- 
ing useful  to  others,  for  knowledge  is 
power,  and  a  moment,  or  hour,  or  day,  of 
your  time  wasted  can  never  be  regained. 
[  165  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

The  development  of  your  mind  and  the  at- 
tainment of  your  success  in  life  is  meas- 
ured by  the  manner  in  which  you  have 
used  your  time. 


[  166  ] 


MARRIAGE. 

Birth,  marriage  and  death  are  the  three 
most  important  events  in  your  career. 

One  of  the  great  laws  of  Nature  pertain- 
ing to  mankind  is  the  propagation  of  the 
human  species  which  is  accomplished  by 
the  union  of  an  adult  male  and  female.  An 
infant  boy  and  an  infant  girl  are  born  into 
this  world,  their  parents  (or  others)  nur- 
ture, train  and  educate  them  until  they 
arrive  at  their  maturity.  Nature  has  en- 
dowed them  with  organs  of  procreation 
and  in  the  course  of  time  they  are  ready 
to  reproduce  their  kind.  Marriage  is  one 
of  the  most  ancient  customs  of  civilization, 
and  parents  in  rearing  their  children  look 
forward  to  the  time  of  their  marriage  with 
great  interest,  in  the  hope  that  they  will 
not  make  a  mistake  in  the  selection  of  their 
life  partner. 

When  you  have  completed  your  prelim- 
inary studies,  whether  school,  college  or 
[  167  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

professional,  and  have  started  in  business 
or  in  the  practice  of  your  profession,  you 
will  begin  to  think  of  marriage  and  of  tak- 
ink  unto  yourself  a  wife — the  girl  of  your 
choice.  This  instinct  is  natural,  and  older 
than  civilization. 

Marriage  is  a  solemn  contract  between  a 
man  and  a  woman  by  which  they  are 
united  for  life  and  assume  the  legal  rela- 
tion of  husband  and  wife.  You  should 
think  very  carefully,  aye,  even  prayerfully, 
of  many  things  before  you  enter  into  such 
a  contract. 

Love  is  the  spiritual  obedience  to  nature, 
it  is  harmony  with  her  laws  clothed  with 
all  the  refinement  of  the  highest  cultiva- 
tion; it  is  the  motive  power  which  leads  to 
kindly  acts;  it  is  the  sunshine  of  life;  it 
brings  happiness  to  you,  and  to  others.  It 
is  a  force  which  may  lead  you  anywhere 
to  be  with  the  one  you  love,  it  may  carry 
you  down  to  the  very  dregs  of  life,  or  high 
in  the  spheres  of  usefulness,  much  de- 
pends on  the  girl  you  love.  Friendship  be- 
tween a  young  man  and  woman  frequently 
ripens  into  love,  and  love  leads  to  matri- 
[  168  ] 


MARRIAGE 

mony,  therefore  be  careful  whom  you  have 
for  your  girl  friends,  especially  when  you 
near  the  marrying  age,  which  with  rare 
exceptions,  ought  not  to  be  much  younger 
than  twenty-five  years.  . 

When  you  are  selecting  your  wife,  re- 
member she  is  to  be  your  mate  for  life, 
that  you  are  to  live  with  her  day  after 
day,  and  year  after  year;  that  she  is  to  be 
your  better  half,  and  should  be  your  equal, 
physically,  morally  and  mentally.  She 
must  be  well  educated,  and  possess  domes- 
tic instincts  and  high  ideals;  she  must  be 
ambitious,  courageous  and  religious,  and 
most  of  all,  as  she  is  to  be  the  mother  of 
your  children,  she  must  be  physically 
sound,  strong  and  well  developed. 

You  must  know  about  her  ancestors,  for 
she  will  possess  many  of  the  characteris- 
tics of  her  parents. 

She  must  possess  the  courage  to  stand 
with  you  in  time  of  stress  or  adversity, 
and  the  genius  to  share  your  prosperity, 
should  you  attain  it.  She  must  be  willing 
to  economize  when  necessary.  There  are 
[  169  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

many  women  who  possess  all  of  these 
good  qualities  and  many  more. 

You,  of  course,  must  bear  in  mind,  that 
a  girl  who  possesses  the  qualifications  I 
have  mentioned  is  also  instinctively  dis- 
criminating, and  is  looking  for  a  mate  who 
possesses  qualifications  equal  to  her  own, 
and  unless  you  have  similar  attainments, 
you  ought  not  win  her  for  your  bride. 

Pay  the  respect  to  women  you  would 
have  others  give  to  your  own  mother. 

Money,  which  represents  accumulated 
labor,  is  a  most  excellent  thing  and  always 
helpful,  but  in  a  matrimonial  alliance, 
money  is  not  a  proper  substitute  for  any 
of  the  requirements  I  have  mentioned. 

When  you  have  married  be  true  to  your 
wife,  and  your  life  will  be  happier,  for  hus- 
band and  wife  are  united  in  life  as  one  in 
hope  and  in  mutual  development,  and  in 
the  rearing  of  their  offspring. 

I  have  observed  that  the  divorce  court 
is  seldom  sought  by  the  husband  and  wife 
who  regularly  attend  Divine  service.  Such 
persons  are  reminded  from  week  to  week 
of  the  gentler  and  nobler  things  in  civ- 
[  170  ] 


MARRIAGE 

ilized  life  and  are  less  likely  to  make  mis- 
takes which  cannot  be  forgiven. 

Let  me  remind  you,  however,  that  there 
is  no  perfect  woman  or  man,  and  by  rea- 
son of  our  frailties,  misunderstandings 
may  arise  from  time  to  time,  between  the 
most  devoted  couple,  and  when  such  mis- 
understanding does  arise  do  not  wait  un- 
til the  next  day  to  straighten  it  out,  but 
take  it  upon  yourself  to  forgive  or  be  for-; 
given  before  the  night  passes. 


[  171  ] 


THE  FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

The  nations  of  the  world  are  today 
bound  together  in  many  ways  and  have 
many  things  in  common;  they  are  all  in- 
terested in  the  affairs  of  the  others  and 
most  of  them  are  engaged  in  trade  or  com- 
merce with  each  other.  Each  nation  of 
importance  is  represented  in  the  capitals 
or  principal  cities  of  the  other  nations  by 
its  ambassadors  or  ministers  or  consular 
agents.  Any  news  of  interest  may  be 
flashed  around  the  world  in  a  few  minutes 
by  means  of  the  cable,  telegraph,  wireless 
and  telephone.  The  great  ocean  going 
vessels  and  transcontinental  trains  are 
constantly  carrying  persons  and  com- 
merce to  all  parts  of  the  world.  These 
great  developments  in  international  com- 
munication, intercourse  and  commerce 
have  been  wrought  within  the  last  few 
years.  As  civilization  has  extended  grad- 
ually around  the  world  the  relations  be- 
[  172  ] 


FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

tween  nations,  which  is  called  interna- 
tional relations,  have  become  more  com- 
plex and  more  interesting. 

The  world  has  no  International  Govern- 
ment, but  we  have  International  Laws,  or 
the  Laws  of  Nations,  which  is  a  body  of 
rules  which  the  civilized  states  or  nations 
consider  legally  binding  in  their  inter- 
course with  each  other.  The  sources  of 
these  laws  are  customs  or  usages  and  writ- 
ten treaties  or  agreements  between  na- 
tions. 

International  customs  or  usages  began 
several  thousand  years  ago,  we  find  ref- 
erences to  them  in  the  Bible  and  in  the 
history  of  ancient  Rome  and  Greece,  but 
international  law  is  a  product  of  Christian 
civilization,  and  began  to  be  recognized 
as  such  four  or  five  hundred  years  ago, 
when  various  nations  found  it  necessary, 
in  order  to  define  their  respective  rights 
and  to  facilitate  intercourse  with  each 
other,  to  enter  into  written  agreements  or 
treaties  between  themselves  and  to  recog- 
nize as  binding  upon  themselves,  many  of 
[  173  ] 


,       IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

the  ancient  customs  relating  to  intercourse 
between  nations. 

And  thus  developed  the  "Family  of  Na- 
tions," which  consists  of  those  nations 
which  are  in  constant  intercourse  with 
each  other,  and  consent  to  be  bound  for 
their  international  conduct  by  the  rules  of 
international  law.  The  following  coun- 
tries may  be  called  members  of  the  "Fam- 
ily of  Nations": 

United  States  of  America. 

British  Empire. 

France. 

German  Empire. 

Russian  Empire. 

Switzerland. 

Norway  and  Sweden. 

Spain. 

Portugal. 

Austria-Hungary. 

Argentine  Republic. 

Republic  of  Chili. 

Brazil. 

Italy. 

Japan. 

China,  and  others. 

[  174  ] 


FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

An  international  law  is  a  rule  for  the 
international  conduct  of  States  or  Nations 
based  on  the  common  consent  of  the  mem- 
ber States  of  the  "Family  of  Nations." 
Express  consent  is  given,  when  the  States 
have  concluded  a  written  treaty,  in  which 
is  set  forth  certain  rules  for  the  future  in- 
ternational conduct  of  the  parties;  tactic 
consent  is  that  which  is  given  through 
States  having  adopted  the  custom  of  sub- 
mitting to  certain  rules  of  conduct  which 
have  developed  out  of  custom  or  usage. 

While  there  has  never  been  an  Inter- 
national Government  above  the  different 
nations  which  was  so  organized  with  a 
department  of  justice,  and  an  army  and 
navy,  that  it  could  enforce  the  rules  of  In- 
ternational Law,  nevertheless  in  practice, 
international  law  is  constantly  recognized 
as  law  and  the  governments  of  different 
nations  comply  with  these  rules  and  when 
they  fail  to  do  so,  war  is  frequently  the 
result,  as  in  the  case  of  the  violation  of  the 
Belgium  neutrality  treaty,  which  Germany 
treated  as  a  "mere  scrap  of  paper." 

It  would  be  impossible  in  this  brief  dis- 
[175  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

cussion  to  tell  you  about  all  of  the  inter- 
national laws,  that  would  require  many 
hundred  pages,  I  can  only  hope  to  tell  you 
briefly  of  a  few  of  the  principal  laws  in 
order  that  you  may  better  understand 
some  of  the  important  questions  of  the 
day. 

A  sovereign  State  is  an  independent  and 
civilized  community  of  individuals  of  both 
sexes,  who  live  together  permanently,  in  a 
fixed  country,  according  to  the  law  of  their 
land  which  is  their  supreme  authority,  and 
independent  of  any  other  earthly  author- 
ity. 

Our  country,  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica, is  a  Sovereign  State,  just  as  are  the 
other  members  of  the  "Family  of  Nations" 
above  named.  We  have  complete  control 
of  all  the  land  and  waters  within  our  boun- 
daries, and  of  the  oceans  within  cannon 
range  of  our  shores.  No  foreigner  can 
enter  our  territory  except  in  compliance 
with  our  laws.  But  the  citizens  of  our 
country  frequently  travel  into  foreign 
countries  for  pleasure  or  on  business,  and 
our  ships  are  landing  in  foreign  ports,  and 
[  176  ] 


FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

foreigners  are  daily  coming  into  our  coun- 
try, and  their  ships  are  landing  in  our 
ports,  and  so  we  must  have  international 
laws  for  the  mutual  protection  of  such 
travelers. 

One  international  law  provides  for  the 
issuing  of  a  passport  to  a  citizen  of  our 
country  which  will  enable  him  to  travel,  or 
temporarily  reside  in  a  foreign  country, 
another  international  law  provides  for  the 
extradition  of  a  criminal  who  has  fled  from 
our  country  to  a  foreign  land;  this  is  gen- 
erally governed  by  a  written  treaty. 

Other  international  laws  deal  with  the 
conduct  of  vessels  on  the  open  seas  which 
belong  to  no  sovereign  State;  the  right  of 
search  and  of  arrest;  shipwreck  and  dis- 
tress on  the  open  sea;  piracy;  fisheries  in 
the  various  seas;  submarine  telegraph 
cables;  the  rights  of  heads  or  monarchs  or 
presidents  of  sovereign  States;  the  rights 
of  diplomatic  envoys  and  their  inviolabil- 
ity while  on  foreign  mission  for  their  gov- 
ernment; the  rights  of  Men-of-war  in  for- 
eign waters,  and  many  other  rights  which 
[  177  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

the  various  governments  deem  necessary 
to  protect. 

Then  there  are  many  international  laws 
which  pertain  to  the  rights  of  nations 
which  are  at  war  with  each  other,  and 
which  govern  the  nations  which  are  neu- 
tral, that  is  nations  which  do  not  take  sides 
with  either  of  the  nations  engaged  in  the 
war.  Some  of  these  international  laws 
pertain  to  good  offices  and  mediation, 
which  means  that  a  State  which  is  not  en- 
gaged in  the  war  may  through  its  efforts 
bring  about  a  settlement  of  the  dispute 
between  the  nations  at  war;  others  deal 
with  reprisals,  blockade  and  intervention; 
the  treatment  of  wounded  and  the  bodies 
of  the  dead  soldiers;  of  captivity;  of  the 
appropriation  of  property  of  the  enemy, 
public  and  private;  the  establishment  of 
prize  courts,  and  flags  of  truce. 

There  are  many  international  laws 
which  define  the  rights  of  neutrals  and 
govern  the  transportation  of  contraband 
of  war,  such  as  ammunition,  as  well  as  ar- 
ticles which  are  not  contraband  of  war, 
such  as  household  furniture,  etc. 
[  178  ] 


FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  for  many 
hundreds  of  years  different  nations  have 
had  treaties  with  each  other  and  have  had 
international  laws  to  guide  them,  disputes 
have  from  time  to  time  arisen  between 
them,  many  of  which  have  been  settled  by 
arbitration;  but  frequently  nations  have 
resorted  to  armed  warfare  to  protect  their 
rights  and  honor,  and  the  blood  of  many 
millions  of  persons  has  been  shed  and  un- 
told wealth  lost.  Many  of  the  sovereign 
governments  of  the  world  spend  annually 
many  millions  of  dollars  on  their  arma- 
ments during  times  of  peace  in  order  to 
prepare  for  war.  Such  expenditures  are 
an  enormuos  drain  upon  the  common  peo- 
pie. 

During  the  last  five  hundred  years  va- 
rious plans  have  been  devised  to  have  an 
alliance  of  the  different  nations  for  the  pur- 
pose of  avoiding  war  and  maintaining 
peace.  One  of  these  plans  was  to  estab- 
lish a  Permanent  Court  of  Arbitration,  for 
the  settlement  of  difficulties  between  the 
members  of  the  alliance.  Up  to  the  present 
time,  no  plan  has  been  adopted  which 
[  179  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

would  do  away  with  international  wars, 
but  the  efforts  of  The  Hague  Peace  Con- 
vention have  been  very  far  reaching  in 
their  effect. 

The  First  Hague  Conference  was  held 
in  May,  1899,  and  was  attended  by  rep- 
resentatives of  twenty-six  of  the  leading 
nations  of  the  world;  the  object  of  this  con- 
ference was  the  limitation  of  armaments, 
the  mitigation  of  the  evils  of  war,  and  the 
maintenance  of  peace.  Some  progress  was 
made,  but  the  results  fell  far  short  of  what 
was  expected.  Soon  after  this  first  con- 
ference a  war  broke  out  between  the  South 
African  Republics  and  Great  Britain  and 
then  followed  the  war  between  Russia  and 
Japan. 

The  Second  Hague  Conference  met  at 
The  Hague  in  June,  1907,  and  was  at- 
tended by  representatives  from  forty-five 
States.  This  conference  continued  in  ses- 
sion about  four  months  and  as  a  result 
many  doubts  concerning  international 
rules  were  removed,  and  much  was  done  to 
encourage  arbitration  and  to  remove  the 
causes  of  war.  There  was  prepared  and 
[  180  ] 


FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

adopted  at  this  conference  a  document 
called  "Convention  for  the  Pacific  Settle- 
ment of  International  Disputes,"  the  open- 
ing sentences  of  which  are  as  follows: 

"Animated  by  the  sincere  desire  to  work 
for  the  maintenance  of  general  peace; 

"Resolved  to  promote  by  all  the  efforts 
in  their  power  the  friendly  settlement  of 
international  disputes; 

"Recognizing  the  solidarity  uniting  the 
members  of  the  society  of  civilized  na- 
tions; 

"Desirous  of  extending  the  empire  of 
law  and  of  strengthening  the  appreciation 
of  international  justice; 

"Convinced  that  the  permanent  insti- 
tution of  a  Tribune  of  Arbitration  accessi- 
ble to  all,  in  the  midst  of  independent 
powers,  will  contribute  effectively  to  this 
result,  etc." 

Then  followed  the  rules  agreed  upon 
pertaining  to 

1  The  maintenance  of  general  peace. 

2  Good  offices  and  mediation. 

3  International  Commission  of  Inquiry. 

4  International  arbitration. 

[  181  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

(a)  The  system  of  arbitration. 

(b)  The  permanent  Court  of  Arbi- 

tration. 

(c)  Arbitration  procedure. 

(d)  Arbitration  by  summary  proce- 

dure. 

5  Final  provisions. 

The  above  document  contains  many  of 
the  rules  of  international  law  and  very 
complete  provisions  for  the  arbitration  of 
differences  between  nations,  but  it  does 
not  meet  the  ideals  of  Secretary  of  State 
Root  as  set  forth  in  his  instructions  to  the 
American  delegates  to  the  Second  Peace 
Conference  as  follows: 

"It  has  been  a  very  general  practice  for 
arbitrators  to  act  not  as  judges  deciding 
questions  of  fact  and  law  upon  the  record 
before  them,  under  a  sense  of  judicial  re- 
sponsibility, but  as  negotiators  effecting 
a  settlement  of  the  questions  brought  be- 
fore them  in  accordance  with  traditions 
and  usages  and  subject  to  all  the  consid- 
erations and  influences  which  affect  dip- 
lomatic agents.  The  two  methods  are 
radically  different,  proceed  upon  different 
[  182  ] 


FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

standards  of  honorable  obligation  and  fre- 
quently lead  to  widely  differing  results.  It 
very  frequently  happens  that  a  nation 
which  would  be  very  willing  to  submit  its 
differences  to  an  impartial  judicial  deter- 
mination is  unwilling  to  submit  them  to 
this  kind  of  diplomatic  process.  If  there 
could  be  a  tribunal  which  would  pass  upon 
questions  between  nations  with  the  same 
impartial  and  impersonal  judgment  that 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
gives  to  questions  arising  between  citizens 
of  the  different  states,  or  between  foreign 
citizens,  and  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  nations 
would  be  more  ready  to  submit  their  con- 
troversies to  its  decision  than  they  are  now 
to  take  the  chance  of  arbitration.  It  should 
be  your  effort  to  bring  about  in  the  second 
conference  a  development  of  The  Hague 
tribunal  into  a  permanent  tribunal  com- 
posed of  judges  who  are  judicial  officers 
and  nothing  less,  who  are  paid  adequate 
salaries,  who  have  no  other  occupation, 
and  who  will  devote  their  entire  time  to 
the  trial  and  decision  of  international 
[  183  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

causes  by  judicial  methods  and  under  a 
sense  of  judicial  responsibility." 

A  very  large  part  of  the  civilized  people 
of  the  world  are  at  this  writing  at  war  with 
each  other;  the  warring  nations  were  not 
willing  to  submit  their  differences  to  arbi- 
tration, which  shows  that  arbitration  does 
not  meet  the  requirements  of  the  times, 
and  it  may  be  that  the  time  is  near  at  hand 
for  the  organization  of  an  International 
Court  of  Justice. 

A  nation  may  be  likened  to  an  individ- 
ual. 

During  many  centuries  individuals  set- 
tled their  disputes  by  resorting  to  brute 
force,  but  as  man  became  more  civilized 
courts  were  organized,  and  individuals 
now  submit  their  disputes  to  the  courts 
for  settlement.  When  two  nations  have 
a  dispute,  they  fight  it  out  in  the  same  way 
they  have  done  for  many  centuries,  sacri- 
ficing the  lives  and  property  of  their  peo- 
ple without  limit,  because  there  is  no 
Court  of  Justice  which  has  the  power  to 
settle  their  differences. 

The  object  of  the  law  is  peace.  It  has 
[  184  ] 


FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

been  said  that  "all  the  law  in  the  world 
has  been  obtained  by  strife.  Every  prin- 
ciple of  law  which  obtains  had  first  to  be 
wrung  by  force  from  those  who  denied  it; 
and  every  legal  right — the  legal  rights  of 
a  whole  nation  as  well  as  those  of  individ- 
uals— supposes  a  continual  readiness  to 
assert  it  and  defend  it.  The  law  is  not 
mere  theory,  but  living  force.  And  hence 
it  is  that  Justice  which,  in  one  hand,  holds 
the  scales  in  which  she  weighs  the  right, 
carries  in  the  other  the  sword  with  which 
she  executes  it.  The  sword  without  the 
scales  is  brute  force,  the  scales  without 
the  sword  is  the  impotence  of  law.  The 
scales  and  the  sword  belong  together,  and 
the  state  of  the  law  is  perfect  only  where 
the  power  with  which  Justice  carries  the 
sword  is  equalled  by  the  skill  with  which 
she  holds  the  scales." 

It  is  the  great  moral  duty  of  individuals, 
as  well  as  of  nations,  to  uphold  and  enforce 
the  law  and  their  legal  rights,  otherwise 
the  law  loses  its  majesty  and  power,  and 
injustice  prevails. 

Most  of  the  principal  nations  of  the 
[  185  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

world  are  now  spending  a  very  large  part 
of  their  national  receipts  from  taxes  for 
the  support  of  their  army  and  for  the  man- 
ufacture of  ammunition  and  implements 
of  warfare  to  be  used  sometime  for  the 
destruction  of  human  lives,  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  United  States  will  hereafter 
be  compelled  to  make  very  much  larger  ex- 
penditures for  its  national  defense.  No 
nation  can  avoid  these  enormous  expendi- 
tures necessary  for  preparedness  against 
war,  until  the  plan  of  an  International 
Court  of  Justice  has  been  realized,  and 
then,  and  then  only  will  it  be  possible  for 
the  nations  of  the  world  to  substantially 
disarm,  and  for  the  people  of  a  nation  to 
devote  their  time,  money  and  energy  to 
peaceful  pursuits. 

It  has  required  many  centuries  of  strug- 
gle to  obtain  the  fundamental  laws  which 
govern  the  rights  of  individuals  to  life, 
liberty  and  property.  When  a  court  of 
justice  has  finally  decided  a  controversy 
between  individuals  they  are  compelled  to 
submit  to  the  judgment  of  the  Court,  for 
back  of  the  Court  stands  the  army  and 
[  186  ] 


FAMILY  OF  NATIONS 

navy  of  the  Nation  always  ready  to  com- 
pel obedience  to  the  mandates  of  the 
Court;  if  it  were  otherwise  many  persons 
would  refuse  to  obey  the  judgments  of  the 
Courts. 

And  so,  if  we  are  to  have  an  Internation- 
al Court  of  Justice,  by  which  the  disputes 
between  Nations  must  be  determined,  it 
will  be  necessary  to  have  back  of  the  Inter- 
national Court,  an  International  Army  and 
Navy  of  sufficient  force  to  compel  any  na- 
tion to  obey  the  order  of  that  Court;  such 
an  army  and  navy  would  be  maintained 
at  the  joint  expense  of  the  various  nations. 

This  has  been  dreamed  of,  and  struggled 
for,  during  the  last  five  hundred  years,  and 
I  believe  the  dream  will  come  true  after 
some  titanic  struggle  between  the  nations 
of  the  world,  and  when  this  plan  of  admin- 
istering world  justice  has  been  realized, 
the  various  nations  will  then  disarm  so  far 
as  preparedness  for  international  warfare 
is  concerned,  but  it  will  be  necessary  for 
each  nation  to  continue  to  maintain  an 
army  of  sufficient  size  to  enforce  domestic 
peace  and  tranquility,  and  obedience  to  its 
own  laws.  w 


BRIBERY. 

You  perhaps  wonder  why  I  discuss  this 
subject  with  you.  It  is  because  of  the  fact 
that  when  bribery  is  resorted  to  it  is  gen- 
erally in  secret  and  in  a  round  about  way, 
and  unless  you  know  something  about  it 
and  are  on  your  guard,  you  may  be  caught 
in  its  meshes,  much  to  your  everlasting 
sorrow  and  regret. 

Bribery  has  been  resorted  to  by  men  to 
accomplish  their  ends  from  time  imme- 
morial. Nearly  every  person  who  has  to 
do  with  the  administration  of  government- 
al affairs  sooner  or  later  meets  the  ques- 
tion of  bribery  in  some  form,  and  he  is  then 
face  to  face  with  the  temptation  and  must 
decide  promptly  whether  he  will  yield  or 
resist.  Many  a  life  has  been  wrecked,  or 
career  ruined,  by  yielding  to  the  insidious 
temptation  of  bribery,  without  perhaps 
realizing  at  the  time  of  his  decision  what 
the  result  of  his  act  may  be. 
[  188  ] 


BRIBERY 

Bribery  is  the  voluntary  giving  or  re- 
ceiving of  anything  of  value  in  corrupt 
payment  for  an  official  act  done  or  to  be 
done. 

The  United  States  and  nearly  every 
State  in  the  Union  have  statutes  on  crimes 
which  provide  in  substance,  that  every 
person  who  shall  offer  or  attempt  to  bribe 
any  officer  of  the  government  and  every 
such  officer  who  shall  propose  or  agree  to 
receive  a  bribe  shall  be  fined  or  imprisoned 
in  the  penitentiary  in  some  cases  not  ex- 
ceeding ten  years. 

Bribery  is  a  grave  and  serious  offense 
against  public  justice,  the  offer  is  a  sore 
temptation  to  the  weak  or  the  depraved. 
A  man  who  attempts  to  bribe  an  officer, 
and  influence  him  to  his  own  degradation 
and  to  the  detriment  of  the  public,  even 
though  he  fail  in  his  purpose  is  as  guilty 
as  the  officer  who  is  willing  to  sell  his  in- 
tegrity and  to  debase  himself.  Both  are 
in  the  highest  degree  injurious  to  the  pub- 
lic morals,  and  the  public  service  suffers 
thereby.  The  honorable  public  official 
[  189  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

spurns  the  temptation  and  maintains  his 
purity  and  integrity. 

The  constitution  of  the  United  States 
provides  that  "the  President,  Vice-Presi- 
dent  and  all  civil  officers  of  the  United 
States  shall  be  removed  from  office  on  im- 
peachment for,  and  conviction  of  treason, 
bribery  or  other  high  crimes  and  misde- 
meanors." 

Why  did  the  framers  of  the  constitution 
specifically  name  the  crimes  treason  and 
bribery?  It  was  because  history  showed 
that  treason  and  bribery  had  been  the 
greatest  crimes  in  governmental  affairs; 
that  public  officials  had  committed  these 
crimes  and  would  commit  them  again,  and 
still  again. 

Let  us  go  back  to  the  days  which  pre- 
ceded the  downfall  of  the  freedom  of 
Athens  and  Greece  nearly  twenty-three 
hundred  years  ago,  it  seems  like  a  long 
time  ago  but  the  stretch  only  covers  the 
lives  of  about  seventy  fathers  and  sons, 
and  during  that  time  men  have  not 
changed  very  much.  Philip  of  Macedon, 
and  after  him  his  son  Alexander,  aimed 
[  190  ] 


BRIBERY 

at  the  conquest  and  sovereignty  of  Greece. 
Demosthenes  who  lived  during  that  pe- 
riod, in  speaking  of  the  means  used  by 
Philip  to  accomplish  many  of  his  designs, 
says  that  he  first  sent  his  ambassadors  into 
Greece,  who  hired  or  bribed  many  of  the 
officials  of  Greece  to  work  for  and  support 
his  cause.  "These  did  Philip  engage  as 
his  agents  and  coadjutors,  and  by  their 
means  inflamed  the  animosities  which 
had  already  torn  and  distracted  the 
Greeks.  Some  he  deceived,  and  some  he 
gained  by  bribery,  on  others  he  employed 
all  his  engines  of  seduction,  and  thus  rent 
the  nation  into  many  different  parties,  al- 
though all  were  alike  engaged  in  one  com- 
mon cause,  that  of  uniting  against  the 
progress  of  his  power." 

Demosthenes  sought  to  arouse  the  peo- 
ple of  ancient  Greece  to  defend  the  liberty 
and  safety  of  Greece  and  in  speaking  of 
his  countrymen  said,  "They  had  the  spirit 
to  reject  even  life,  unless  they  were  al- 
lowed to  enjoy  that  life  in  freedom.  For 
it  was  a  principle  fixed  deep  in  every 
breast,  that  man  was  not  born  to  his  pa- 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

rents  only,  but  to  his  country.  And  mark 
the  distinction,  he  who  regards  himself 
as  born  only  to  his  parents  waits  in  pas- 
sive submission  for  the  hour  of  his  natural 
dissolution;  he  who  considers  that  he  is  the 
child  of  his  country  also,  is  prepared  to 
meet  his  fate  freely  rather  than  behold  that 
country  reduced  to  vassalage,  and  thinks 
those  insults  and  disgraces  which  he  must 
meet  in  a  state  enslaved  much  more  ter- 
rible than  death." 

Philip's  plan  of  conquest  of  Greece 
seems  to  have  been  to  first  bribe  many  of 
her  officials  and  thus  weaken  their  patriot- 
ism, and  their  preparation  for  defense,  and 
while  they  were  in  this  condition  of  un- 
preparedness  to  subjugate  them  with  his 
army.  He  died  before  his  task  was  com- 
pleted, but  his  son  Alexander  followed  in 
his  foot-steps,  bribed  many  of  the  officials 
of  Greece  and  completed  her  conquest,  and 
the  downfall  of  Grecian  liberty. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  these  con- 
ditions as  they  existed  just  prior  to  the  de- 
cline of  the  Roman  Empire.  Ferrero  says, 
"And  before  long  there  grew  up  even 
[  192  ] 


BRIBERY 

among  the  aristocracy  a  generation  of  ar- 
rogant and  ambitious  politicians,  who 
transformed  the  reasoned  and  moderate 
liberalism  of  Scipio  and  his  followers  into 
a  revolutionary  movement  at  variance 
with  all  the  ancient  principles  of  social  dis- 
cipline and  destined  to  set  public  and  pri- 
vate life  at  the  mercy  of  passion  and  self 
seeking,  who  were  greedy,  overbearing 
and  unscrupulous,  contemptuous  of  tradi- 
tion and  dazzled  by  the  glamour  of  Graeco- 
Asiatic  civilization.  Young  men  stood  for 
office  before  reaching  the  legal  age,  and 
did  not  shrink  from  open  bribery  to  attain 
their  desire.  .  .  .  Money,  in  fact,  had  be- 
come the  supreme  power  in  the  State." 

Speaking  of  a  considerable  part  of  the 
voters  he  says,  "Few  of  these  would  scru- 
ple to  sell  their  vote  for  a  consideration. 
Skillful  wire  pulling  had  thus  gradually 
been  enabled  to  elevate  dealings  in  votes 
to  the  level  of  a  regular  trade.  They 
formed  the  dregs  of  the  electorate  into  or- 
ganized clubs  and  made  sure  of  their  men 
by  a  careful  system  of  free  dinners  and 
petty  largess.  Then  they  sold  their  votes 
[  193  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

by  contract  to  the  several  condidates.  . .  ." 
"Crassus  proposed  a  bill  against  corrup- 
tion .  .  .  but  no  small  reform  of  this  na- 
ture could  have  availed  in  a  society  where 
anarchy  and  corruption  were  encroaching 
day  by  day.  .  .  ."  Again,  "All  the  magis- 
trates in  office  demanded  money  from  the 
candidates  as  the  price  of  their  assis- 
tance. .  .  .  As  the  voting  drew  nearer,  ac- 
cusations, invectives  and  threats  redou- 
bled in  violence  and  the  bribery  became 
more  and  more  outspoken;  on  the  day  it- 
self there  would  inevitably  be  bloodshed 
in  the  Campus,  and  many  looked  forward 
as  a  last  deliverance  to  the  nomination  of  a 
dictator." 

It  is  an  historic  fact  that  almost  every 
generation  produces  its  bribe  givers  and 
its  bribe  takers.  A  bribe  always  indicates 
that  money  is  the  power  and  has  taken  the 
place  of  justice  and  right.  The  youth  of 
the  land  should  be  so  trained  that  they 
will  know  what  bribery  means  and  be  able 
to  readily  detect  it  and  protect  themselves 
against  it.  If  bribery  is  an  art  in  which 
men  should  be  skilled  then  it  should  be 
[  194  ] 


BRIBERY 

taught  in  our  public  schools,  but  bribery 
is  not  an  art,  it  is  a  crime.  A  briber  does 
not  operate  in  the  open,  his  methods  are 
secret,  if  he  is  detected  he  often  flees  from 
justice,  but  he  cannot  hide  from  his  con- 
science or  knowledge  of  his  wrong,  and  it 
may  bring  him  to  the  bar  of  justice. 

A  man  once  came  into  my  office  and 
asked  me  to  give  him  employment.  He  told 
me  he  had  formerly  been  employed  as  an 
officer  in  a  certain  court  of  justice  and 
while  acting  in  that  capacity  accepted  pay- 
ment and  used  money  for  bribing  jurors, 
and  when  he  was  discovered  he  immedi- 
ately escaped  to  Canada,  and  that  the  men 
who  had  hired  him  to  do  such  work  kept 
him  supplied  with  enough  money  to  live  on 
until  the  statute  of  limitations  had  run 
against  them,  and  then  refused  to  pay  him 
any  more  money.  He  further  said  he  was 
without  money  and  had  been  unable  to 
procure  employment  and  was  near  starva- 
tion. He  then  broke  into  tears  for  the 
knowledge  of  his  wrongdoing  had  made 
him  a  nervous  wreck.  It  is  hardly  neces- 
sary for  me  to  add  that  I  told  him  I  had 
[  195  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

no  employment  for  him.  The  next  I 
heard  of  him  he  had  surrendered  himself 
to  the  legal  authorities  and  was  tried  for 
the  crime  of  bribery  and  sentenced  to  serve 
a  term  in  the  penitentiary. 

Don't  ever  let  yourself  be  made  a  tool 
of  this  kind,  it  would  be  better  to  scratch 
soil  in  the  barnyard  with  the  chickens  than 
to  attempt  to  gain  a  livelihood  by  resort- 
ing to  bribery. 

Bribery  is  unlawful ;  it  is  wrong  because 
it  substitutes  money  for  justice,  it  under- 
mines the  very  foundation  of  property 
rights  and  a  free  form  of  government. 

In  earlier  times  when  two  men  had  a 
dispute  they  fought  it  out  with  force  and 
arms  and  the  survivor  was  the  victor ;  later 
on  civilization  devised  the  plan  of  having 
disputes  between  men  settled  by  trial  be- 
fore impartial  judges  and  jurors;  now  if 
it  is  right  for  one  side  to  pay  money  to  the 
judge  or  the  jurors  to  influence  their  de- 
cision it  is  of  course  right  for  the  other 
side  to  pay  money  to  the  judge  or  jury  and 
it  becomes  simply  a  question  as  to  which 
side  can  pay  the  most  money — this,  of 
[  196  ] 


BRIBERY 

course,  results  in  all  principles  of  justice 
and  right  being  cast  aside  and  in  time 
would  bring  about  a  complete  disregard 
for  law,  which  means  anarchy  and  chaos. 
It  is  therefore  the  duty  of  all  strong  men 
at  all  times  and  without  exception  to 
do  all  in  their  power  to  stamp  out  every 
form  of  bribery,  because  it  is  unlawful  and 
dishonest  and  is  the  pathway  to  revolu- 
tion. 

Bribery  has  crept  into  politics  in  our 
country. 

If  our  form  of  government  is  to  be  main- 
tained it  is  necessarily  the  duty  of  every 
man  and  woman  to  take  an  active  interest 
in  politics,  it  is  their  duty  to  know  about 
governmental  affairs,  and  about  the  men 
whom  they  elect  to  office;  if  voters  are 
careless  and  indifferent  in  respect  to  their 
civic  duties,  dishonest  men  will  slip  into 
office,  who,  when  the  opportunity  comes 
will  seek  and  accept  bribes  from  persons 
who  think  it  is  to  their  interest  to  pay 
bribes. 

But  if  there  is  no  bribe  giver  there  can 
be  no  bribe  taker.  Our  government  is  so 
[  197  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

separated  into  legislative,  executive  and 
judicial  departments  that  no  person  need 
ever  be  deprived  of  his  right  by  a  dishon- 
est office  holder;  it  is  not  necessary  for 
him  to  pay  the  bribe,  he  can  obtain  his 
right  by  pursuing  a  different  course.  The 
strongest,  ablest  and  most  successful  bus- 
iness men  whom  I  know  do  not  resort  to 
bribery  to  accomplish  their  ends,  they  are 
so  courageous  that  it  is  not  necessary  for 
them  to  pay  a  bribe  to  obtain  what  they 
are  entitled  to.  They  uphold  the  majesty 
of  the  law  and  fight  for  their  rights,  irre- 
spective of  the  dishonest  office  holder.  It 
is  the  weaker  men  who  resort  to  bribery, 
they  have  neither  the  patience,  intelli- 
gence nor  ability  to  protect  their  claims 
except  by  bribery,  and  sooner  or  later  such 
men  are  stamped  failures;  whenever  you 
see  bribery,  fight  it. 

Some  may  tell  you  that  bribery  is  ram- 
pant, that  it  is  everywhere,  and  that  if  you 
would  succeed  you  must  yield  to  it,  but 
that  is  false,  it  is  not  the  fact.  It  is  bet- 
ter and  cheaper  for  corporations  to  resist 
bribery,  their  just  ends  can  be  accom- 
[  198  ] 


BRIBERY 

plished  without  it,  and  wherever  you  find 
the  chief  executives  resorting  to  bribery 
you  will  generally  find  the  employees 
lower  down  the  ladder  resorting  to  graft- 
ing and  cheating.  Bribery  and  honesty  do 
not  go  hand  in  hand. 

For  some  years  a  silent  revolution  has 
been  going  on  in  our  country,  the  object 
of  which  is  to  overcome  dishonest  meth- 
ods, such  as  bribery  and  corruption — in 
politics,  business,  labor  and  other  organ- 
izations, and  the  substitution  therefor  of 
justice  and  honesty.  A  form  of  govern- 
ment in  which  bribery  and  injustice  pre- 
dominate, whose  officers  are  elected  by 
purchased  votes  cannot  long  exist;  a  bus- 
iness corporation  which  is  conducted  by 
bribers  and  grafters  cannot  eventually  suc- 
ceed, for  the  lawmakers  will  continue  to 
enact  laws  aimed  at  their  methods  until 
such  dishonest  methods  are  driven  out  and 
suppressed.  Business  is  not  war,  for  "war 
is  hell."  Business  is  almost  universally 
conducted  on  a  fair  and  honest  basis,  it  is 
exceptional  when  it  is  not,  and  it  is  to 
remedy  these  exceptions  that  new  legisla- 
[  199  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

tion  is  from  time  to  time  invoked.  It  is 
the  desire  and  wish  of  the  great  majority 
of  the  people  of  our  common  country  to 
be  permitted  to  live  in  the  enjoyment  of 
freedom  and  the  possession  of  their  prop- 
erty under  just  laws. 

Bribers  were  obnoxious  even  in  the  days 
when  the  Psalms  were  written,  from  500 
to  900  years  B.  C.,  for  in  the  26th  Psalm 
we  find: 

"Gather  not  my  soul  with  sinners, 
Nor  my  life  with  men  of  blood; 
In  whose  hands  is  wickedness, 
And  their  right  hand  is  full  of  bribes, 
But  as  for  me  I  will  walk  in  mine  in- 
tegrity." 

And  in  the  Prophets: 
"For  I  know  how  manifold  are  your  trans- 
gressions, 

And  how  mighty  are  your  sins, 
Ye  who  afflict  the  just,  who  take  bribes, 
Who  deprive  the  poor  of  their  rights  in 
courts  of  justice." 

Abraham  Lincoln  once  said,     "I  will 
stand  with  any  man  while  he  stands  right, 
[  200  ] 


BRIBERY 

but  I  will  part  with  him  when  he  goes 
wrong." 

Plain,  simple  honesty  is  the  demand  of 
the  times. 


[  201  ] 


LIFE  AND  DEATH. 

Life  has  been  flowing  as  a  continuous 
stream  through  humanity  for  hundreds  of 
centuries,  yes,  probably  thousands  of  cen- 
turies. We  do  not  know  the  origin  of 
Life,  for  Nature  has  kept  that  as  one  of 
her  hidden  secrets,  but  we  do  know  that 
coursing  through  the  blood  of  man  and 
woman  are  germs  of  life,  which,  when 
united  in  the  mother's  womb  create  a  new 
human  life,  and  from  that  moment  eternal 
vigilance  is  required  to  protect  that  Life 
during  its  natural  days,  against  Death, 
which  seems  to  be  the  companion  of  Life, 
ever  ready  to  carry  Life  back  to  Nature, 
we  know  not  where  or  why. 

The  Creator  has  endowed  you  with  a 
brain  and  given  you  the  power,  if  you  will 
labor,  to  obtain  the  right  ideas  of  Nature's 
laws  which  govern  Life.  The  penalty 
which  Nature  seems  to  have  imposed  for 
the  violation  of  her  laws  by  man  is  physical 
[  202  ] 


LIFE  AND  DEATH 

death,  which  may  be  immediate,  or  de- 
ferred for  a  time,  depending  upon  the  ex- 
tent of  the  violation  of  her  laws. 

We  often  speak  of  death  (other  than 
from  old  age)  as  being  the  result  of  acci- 
dent or  weakness,  but  it  would  be  more  ac- 
curate to  say  it  was  the  result  of  the  break- 
ing of  some  law  of  Nature  by  the  individ- 
ual himself  or  by  one  of  his  fellows,  it  may 
even  have  been  by  one  of  his  ancestors,  for 
the  sins  of  the  parent  are  visited  unto  suc- 
ceeding generations. 

Be  not  too  venturesome,  and  trust  not 
your  life  in  the  hands  of  careless  or  reck- 
less persons,  when  it  can  be  avoided.  Keep 
this  in  mind  not  only  for  your  own  safety 
but  for  the  sake  of  those  who  love  and  de- 
pend upon  you. 

When,  however,  death  claims  your 
friend  and  companion,  meet  it  bravely. 
Nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  worrying  or 
brooding  over  that  which  has  happened, 
but,  still  cherishing  his  memory  and  ob- 
taining such  comfort  as  you  may  from  re- 
ligion, give  your  careful  thought  to  the 
proper  solution  of  the  problems  of  life 
[  203  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

which  arise  from  day  to  day  among  the 
living. 

"Ah!  if  our  sight  was  piercing  enough 
to  discover,  where  we  only  see  brilliant 
points  on  the  black  background  of  the  sky, 
resplendent  suns  which  revolve  in  the  ex- 
panse, and  the  inhabited  worlds  which  fol- 
low them  in  their  path,  if  it  were  given  to 
us  to  embrace  in  a  general  coup  d'oeil 
these  myriads  of  fire  based  systems;  and 
if,  advancing  with  the  velocity  of  light  we 
could  traverse  from  century  to  century  this 
unlimited  number  of  suns  and  spheres, 
without  ever  meeting  any  limit  of  this  pro- 
digious immensity  where  God  brings  forth 
worlds  and  beings;  looking  behind,  but  no 
longer  knowing  in  what  part  of  the  in- 
finite to  find  this  grain  of  dust  called  the 
Earth,  we  should  stop  fascinated  and  con- 
founded by  such  a  spectacle,  and  uniting 
our  voice  to  the  concert  of  universal  na- 
ture we  should  say  from  the  depths  of  our 
soul:  Almighty  God!  how  senseless  we 
were  to  believe  that  there  was  nothing  be- 
yond the  Earth,  and  that  our  abode  alone 
[  204  ] 


LIFE  AND  DEATH 

possessed  the  privilege  of  reflecting  Thy 
greatness  and  power." 

The  diameter  of  the  earth  is  about  8,000 
miles.  Astronomers  tell  us  the  diameter 
of  the  sun  is  864,000  miles;  that  the  sun  is 
93,000,000  miles  distant  from  the  earth; 
that  the  distance  from  the  earth  to  one  of 
the  regular  stars  is  nearly  25,000,000,000,- 
000  miles;  that  there  are  a  hundred  million 
or  more  stars  in  our  universe  and  that 
some  of  these  stars  may  be  a  thousand 
times  the  size  of  our  sun.  It  is  impossible 
for  the  human  mind  to  grasp  the  meaning 
of  these  figures.  Astronomers  do  not 
know  whether  there  are  other  universes 
beyond  the  limits  of  our  own,  but  they  con- 
tend that  the  physical  laws  with  which  we 
are  familiar  control  throughout  the  uni- 
verse. 

Scientific  men  tell  us  the  earth  has  been 
in  existence  from  thirty  to  fifty  million 
years. 

Biologists  tell  us  that  man  is  the  prod- 
uct of  evolution  and  that  he  has  not 
changed  much  in  400,000  years.  But  the 
[  205  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

scientific  men  have  not  yet  discovered  the 
origin  or  creation  of  Life. 

Therefore,  in  contemplating  Life  and 
Death,  as  everyone  does  at  times,  we  fall 
back  on  religion  which  is  based  on  the  be- 
lief that  there  exists  in  the  universe  a  Cre- 
ator or  controlling  mind  with  which  hu- 
man minds  are  in  communication.  Reli- 
gion exists  today  among  the  persons  of 
the  highest  intelligence  as  well  as  among 
the  illiterate  and  even  the  savages,  and  it 
has  existed  throughout  the  known  history 
of  mankind. 

God's  purpose  seems  to  be  the  gradual 
advancement  to  a  higher  plane  of  useful- 
ness in  our  daily  life  of  each  individual 
who  co-operates  with  Him,  but  when  He 
takes — as  He  gives — the  Spirit  of  Life,  we 
do  not  know  His  further  purpose  and  we 
thus  abide  on  earth,  each  in  our  individual 
religious  faith. 

But  those  who  have  abiding  faith  in  the 
guidance  of  their  Divine  Creator  seem  to 
be  able  to  bear  their  sorrow  and  adversity, 
and  success  and  prosperity,  with  equanim- 
ity. 

[  206  ] 


A  MAN  AMONG  MEN. 

"The  mighty  hopes  which  make  us 
men." 

Every  thoughtful  boy  hopes  and  expects 
to  become  a  real  man,  and  to  be  a  man 
among  his  fellow  men.  He  must  have  am- 
bition, and  enough  conceit  to  justly  think 
well  of  himself.  He  must  first  learn  how 
to  do  well  one  thing  which  is  useful  to 
men  and  attain  therein  the  highest  effi- 
ciency possible  for  him  at  the  time. 

Initiative  is  imperative.  Plan  out  a 
course  of  action  and  then  go  ahead  with 
it  step  by  step,  don't  lay  back  and  expect 
someone  to  lead  you  all  the  time;  if  you 
want  to  talk  over  some  proposition  with 
another  man,  go  and  see  him,  don't  wait 
for  him  to  come  and  see  you ;  keep  pushing 
your  plan  forward  all  the  time  and  don't 
let  a  day  slip  by  without  having  made  some 
progress.  Be  thorough  in  your  work,  and 
master  every  detail.  Be  satisfied  to  begin 
[  207  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

at  the  bottom,  and  having  learned  the  sim- 
pler things  in  the  work  you  have  under- 
taken you  will  advance  gradually,  but 
don't  aspire  to  the  next  higher  place  un- 
til you  know  you  are  qualified  to  do  the 
work. 

Let  patience  be  your  watchword;  if  a 
thing  does  not  work  out  the  way  you  ex- 
pect it,  study  it  over  and  find  the  reason 
for  the  failure,  there  is  a  cause  for  every- 
thing, but  it  often  requires  great  patience 
to  find  it;  having  found  the  cause  of  the 
failure,  you  will  avoid  making  the  same 
mistake  in  the  future,  and  thus  good  will 
come  out  of  even  failure.  You  remember 
the  old  saying,  "If  at  first  you  don't  suc- 
ceed, try,  try  again,"  which  means  perse- 
verance. Then  there  is  another  one  which 
runs,  "Everything  comes  to  him  who 
waits";  I  would  add  to  this, — provided  he 
works  in  the  meantime  intelligently,  and 
has  the  strength  to  live  through  the  period 
of  watchful  waiting.  The  sun  always  ap- 
pears again  after  the  darkness  of  night, 
and  it  always  shines  again  after  a  storm; 
and  so  after  long,  patient  and  intelligent 
[  208  ] 


A  MAN  AMONG  MEN 

toil  comes  success  to  brighten  your  days 
and  reward  your  effort. 

Intelligence,  is  demanded  in  all  your 
work,  and  you  must  bring  into  use  the 
things  you  have  learned  while  you  were 
obtaining  your  education.  You  have 
learned  how  to  reason  and  think  for  your- 
self, exercise  these  powers  constantly;  the 
person  who  does  not  take  the  time  to 
think  things  over,  necessarily  makes  many 
mistakes;  spend  part  of  each  day  alone, 
thinking  over  the  problems  of  your  work, 
and  frequently  advise  with  others,  by  so 
doing  you  not  only  obtain  the  benefit  of 
others'  experience,  but  develop  your  own 
thoughts  and  ideas  upon  the  subject. 

Personal  appearance,  is  of  importance  in 
your  contact  with  men ;  be  neat,  clean  and 
well  dressed,  and  wear  the  appearance  of 
prosperity  and  success  even  though  you 
are  struggling.  The  man  whose  clothes 
are  soiled  and  shabby,  whose  shoes  are  run 
down  at  the  heel  and  unpolished,  is  work- 
ing under  a  handicap  when  he  meets 
strangers,  for  he  generally  wears  the  ex- 
pression of  failure. 

[  209  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

Cultivate  good  manners,  and  be  polite  in 
your  daily  contact  with  persons.  Learn 
the  art  of  conversation  which  is  a  medium 
of  exchange  of  ideas,  don't  be  silent  like  a 
mummy,  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  occa- 
sion; it  is  better  to  talk,  even  if  by  so  do- 
ing you  disclose  some  ignorance,  you  can 
at  least  ask  questions  and  thus  gain  some 
information.  It  is  well  also  to  learn  to  be 
a  good  listener  for  if  one  monopolizes  the 
entire  conversation,  it  ceases  to  be  conver- 
sation and  becomes  a  discourse  or  lecture 
which  is  not  appropriate  on  many  occa- 
sions. 

Good  manners,  will  make  you  thought- 
ful of  the  comfort  of  others,  and  combined 
with  intelligent  conversation  will  make 
you  an  agreeable  companion.  Read  some 
books  on  good  manners  and  inform  your- 
self on  the  arts  of  diplomacy.  It  is  the 
many  little  pleasantries  with  your  daily  as- 
sociates that  makes  life  agreeable  to  those 
around  you  and  to  yourself. 

The  power  of  endurance,  is  a  great  asset 
in  obtaining  success;  the  average  youth 
can  acquire  physical  strength  and  health 
[  210  ] 


A  MAN  AMONG  MEN 

and  keep  them  until  old  age  if  he  will  learn 
and  daily  observe  the  rules  which  govern 
the  operation  of  his  human  machine.  There 
is  no  reason  why  you  should  be  ignorant 
upon  this  subject,  you  should  have  some 
knowledge  concerning  all  of  the  vital  or- 
gans and  functions  of  your  body,  this  can 
be  easily  and  quickly  obtained  by  reading 
one  or  more  good  books  written  by  doc- 
tors upon  this  subject,  such  as  one  en- 
titled "Health,  Strength  and  Happiness." 
Then  as  you  advance  in  years,  read  some 
books  on  "How  to  Play  Golf"  and  play  the 
game.  God  has  given  you  the  senses  with 
which  you  may  enjoy  the  fresh,  brisk  air, 
the  beauties  of  the  turf,  trees  and  land- 
scape, the  companionship  of  genial  friends, 
the  exhilaration  of  the  mind  and  body  that 
follows  from  agreeable  exercise  and  a 
spirited  contest.  These,  and  more,  are  all 
realized  in  a  game  of  golf.  Golf  drives 
fatigue  from  the  mind,  and  refreshes  it 
for  the  better  solution  of  your  real  prob- 
lems. Golf  makes  new  friends  for  you  and 
prolongs  the  enjoyment  of  life.  It  is  rap- 
idly becoming  the  national  pastime,  for  it 
[  211  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

is  beneficial  to  the  old,  middle  aged  and 
young  alike. 

Honesty — if  there  is  one  thing  more 
than  another  absolutely  required  in  the 
elements  which  mark  a  man  among  men, 
it  is  honesty.  If  you  haven't  honesty,  men 
will  neither  trust  nor  honor  you.  A  baby 
does  not  know  the  difference  between  the 
truth  and  falsehood;  every  youth  must  be 
trained  in  the  principles  of  honesty. 

Men  demand  in  their  intercourse  with 
each  other  that  they  be  told  the  truth,  the 
whole  truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth,  and 
if  you  fall  short  of  this  requirement  you 
must  pay  the  price  which  is  sometimes 
very  severe,  it  may  be  a  term  in  the  peni- 
tentiary, where  you  will  have  plenty  of 
time  to  think  over  the  error  of  lying  or 
other  dishonest  act.  Never  knowingly  tell 
a  lie,  or  attempt  to  deceive,  for  sooner  or 
later  the  truth  will  be  discovered,  and  you 
will  suffer  for  your  falseness.  Always 
speak  and  act  the  truth,  whether  it  is  to 
your  immediate  advantage  or  not,  for  a 
clear  conscience,  and  a  reputation  for 
truthfulness  and  honor  will  be  more  valu- 
[  2.12  ] 


A  MAN  AMONG  MEN 

able  to  you  than  anything  you  could  pos- 
sibly gain  by  lying  or  by  dishonesty.  "An 
honest  man  is  the  noblest  work  of  God," 
and  there  are  not  too  many  of  them.  The 
statement  has  been  made, — based  upon  re- 
liable information, — that  not  more  than 
one  person  in  a  thousand  is  thoroughly 
honest.  It  is  necessary  for  our  federal 
and  state  governments  to  spend  many  mil- 
lions of  dollars  each  year  for  the  prose- 
cution and  punishment  of  dishonest  per- 
sons. It  is  a  wise  precaution  not  to  trust 
any  person  until  you  have  first  obtained 
accurate  information  concerning  his  hon- 
esty, for  there  are  many  persons  seeking 
to  obtain  money  by  various  fraudulent 
schemes,  false  representations  and  plain 
thievery,  some  of  whom  appear  in  the 
guise  of  beggars.  A  violator  of  the  laws 
of  the  land  cannot  be  a  man  among  men. 

Be  strong  and  courageous,  and  fight,  if 
necessary,  for  the  preservation  of  your 
country  and  the  right. 

In  your  financial  transactions  be  ac- 
curate and  careful. 

Money  is  a  measure  of  the  value  of  serv- 
[  213  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

ice  or  property.  To  succeed  in  your  busi- 
ness you  must  be  able  to  save  something 
out  of  each  dollar  of  business;  you  must 
be  able  to  sell  your  product  for  more  than 
its  total  cost,  and  in  ascertaining  what  is 
the  total  cost  you  must  not  fail  to  include 
every  detail  of  expense.  But  above  all  you 
must  learn  to  save  money,  remember  the 
word  "save"  which  means  sacrificing  for 
the  present  something  you  would  like  to 
have.  When  you  have  saved  a  thousand 
dollars  or  more  and  have  it  safely  invested 
or  loaned  out  at  interest,  that  money  is 
working  for  you  day  and  night,  or  rather 
the  borrower  of  it  is  working  for  you.  Be- 
gin when  you  are  a  boy  to  earn  and  save 
money,  even  if  only  a  few  dollars,  invest  it 
and  let  the  interest  accumulate,  it  will 
prove  an  object  lesson  of  very  great  value 
to  you  in  after  life.  You  must  have  fore- 
sight and  make  some  provision  for  a  rainy 
day. 

In  order  to  make  money  you  must  have 
some  commodity  or  service  to  sell  which  is 
wanted  by  other  persons;  the  greater  the 
[  214  ] 


A  MAN  AMONG  MEN 

demand  for  your  commodity  or  service, 
the  more  money  you  ought  to  make. 

Persons  or  corporations  who  employ  in- 
dividuals to  work  for  them  in  their  busi- 
ness generally  make  a  profit  out  of  the 
services  of  each  employee,  and  if  they  do 
not  make  such  profit  their  business  will 
not  be  profitable. 

Never  make  any  investment  or  engage 
in  any  business  venture  or  enterprise  un- 
til you  have  made,  or  had  made  by  com- 
petent and  reliable  experts,  a  most  thor- 
ough and  exhaustive  examination  of  the 
property  in  which  you  expect  to  become 
financially  interested.  Business  enterprises 
are  frequently  not  what  they  seem  to  be. 
Proceed  slowly,  but  promptly  and  with 
safety,  for  safety  in  your  investments  is  of 
greater  importance  than  the  prospect  of 
big  profits,  which  frequently  do  not  come. 
Do  not  be  afraid  to  borrow  money  for  use 
in  your  business,  the  most  successful  men 
are  among  the  biggest  borrowers  of 
money. 

Never  buy  the  stock  or  bonds  of  a  cor- 
poration which  is  controlled  by  men  who 
[  215  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

are  not  honorable,  for  sooner  or  later  by 
some  trick  or  scheme  they  will  get  your 
money  away  from  you.  "Almost  any  man 
can  make  money  but  it  takes  a  wise  man 
to  keep  it."  While  you  are  helping  others 
— if  there  is  any  profit — see  that  you  get 
your  just  share. 

"Put  up  the  bars"  don't  stop  and  leave 
the  work  you  have  in  hand  half  finished, 
close  it  up  properly  and  as  it  ought  to  be 
done.  Be  strong  in  every  act  of  life.  Learn 
all  of  the  true  facts  involved  in  a  problem 
before  you  make  your  decision. 

However  successful  you  may  be,  don't 
get  a  "swelled  head"  for  this  is  a  sure  sign 
the  job  is  bigger  than  the  man  behind  the 
gun.  A  man  with  a  "swelled  head"  always 
abuses  his  power  and  sooner  or  later  loses 
out.  Keep  your  nerves  steady  and  have  a 
reserve  force  ready  for  any  emergency. 
Don't  get  excited  or  mad,  for  "whom  the 
Gods  wish  to  destroy  they  first  make  mad." 

Books — the  best  of  books,  ancient  and 
modern,  of  biography,  history,  economics, 
science  and  literature  contain  the  expe- 
rience and  learning  of  the  ablest  men  who 
[  216  ] 


A  MAN  AMONG  MEN 

have  lived.  Surround  yourself  with  such 
books,  read  them  from  week  to  week,  and 
make  companions  of  these  master  minds, 
the  knowledge  of  their  experience  thus 
gained  will  add  to  your  own  many  hundred 
fold. 

Travel,  gives  to  every  person  a  broader 
culture  and  a  better  knowledge  of  his  own 
or  a  foreign  country  than  he  can  obtain  in 
any  other  way.  When  you  have  person- 
ally visited  Washington,  or  San  Francisco, 
or  Mexico  City,  or  Quebec,  or  London,  or 
Rome,  or  any  of  the  other  great  centers  of 
civilization,  you  always  thereafter  have  a 
greater  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  peo- 
ple of  those  communities  than  you  had 
before.  You  have  seen  with  your  own  eyes 
the  different  countries,  and  observed  the 
manners  and  customs  of  different  peoples 
and  you  have  a  better  understanding  of 
their  ambitions  and  requirements ;  you  will 
thereafter  read  with  more  interest  the  cur- 
rent news  of  the  day  from  these  different 
localities  and  converse  with  greater  intel- 
ligence with  fellow  travelers  upon  these 
[  217  ] 


IDEAS  FOR  BOYS 

topics.    Money  and  time  spent  in  travel  is 
well  invested. 

Be  just,  give  to  every  man  that  which 
belongs  to  him,  and  accord  to  every  man 
the  greatest  of  individual  liberty  compat- 
ible with  the  same  liberty  for  others. 
Every  strong  man  has  enemies,  but  you 
can  even  be  just  to  them  and  forgive  them 
as  you  hope  to  be  forgiven. 

Don't  take  yourself  too  seriously,  for 
there  are  some  persons  whose  views  are 
entitled  to  as  much  weight,  if  not  more, 
than  your  own. 

Be  of  good  cheer,  happy  and  contented 
with  your  lot,  for  there  are  many  others 
worse  off  than  you,  but  ever  keep  smiling 
and  pushing  on. 

Selfishness,  is  the  underlying  motive  of 
theft  and  crime  as  well  as  the  lesser  evils  of 
life.  The  person  who  is  continually  accept- 
ing and  never  giving  cannot  be  liked  by 
his  fellows,  therefore,  be  generous  and 
kind  in  your  words  and  in  your  acts.  Create 
around  yourself  a  spirit  of  fairness  and 
justice,  and  you  will  not  see  so  many  faults 
in  your  brother. 

[  218  ] 


A  MAN  AMONG  MEN 

Your  character  which  is  you,  your  soul, 
whatever  you  may  be,  build  it  up  and  im- 
prove it  from  day  to  day  by  kind,  cour- 
ageous, intelligent,  just  and  generous  acts 
toward  those  with  whom  you  live  and  asso- 
ciate; you  will  thus  learn  the  art  of  right 
living  with  your  fellows  and  know  how  to 
accomplish  things  worth  while  with  men. 
Your  character  is  always  known,  and 
changes  from  time  to  time;  it  is  so  clear 
that  it  shines  out  even  through  your  eyes 
and  is  known  by  your  appearance  as  well 
as  by  your  words  and  acts.  Make  your 
character  so  right,  so  strong  and  clear  that 
he  who  runs  may  read  it. 

Nothing  great  was  ever  accomplished 
without  enthusiasm.  Life  is  wonderful  and 
is  a  series  of  surprises  and  "holds  a  penalty 
for  every  wrong,  but  none  to  virtue  or  to 
wisdom."  Recognize  the  divinity  of  your 
life,  and  commune  each  day  with  your  Cre- 
ator that  He  may  lead  you,  a  lovable  and 
true  man,  a  man  among  His  men. 


[  219  ] 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

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to  $1.00  per  volume  after  the  sixth  day.  Books  not  in 
demand  may  be  renewed  if  application  is  made  before 
expiration  of  loan  period. 


DEC   6  1918 
WAY  31  W* 

NOY14IW! 


JAM 


50m-7,'16 


YC  30327 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


